The functional structure of plant communities drives soil functioning via changes in soil abiotic properties

Autor: Enrique Valencia, Thomas Galland, Carlos P. Carmona, Marta Goberna, Lars Götzenberger, Jan Lepš, Miguel Verdú, Petr Macek, Francesco de Bello
Přispěvatelé: Czech Science Foundation, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), European Commission, Comunidad de Madrid, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Estonian Research Council, Valencia, Enrique, Galland, Thomas, Carmona, Carlos P., Goberna, Marta, Götzenberger, Lars, Lepš, Jan, Verdú, Miguel, de Bello, Francesco
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: EcologyREFERENCES. 103(12)
ISSN: 1939-9170
Popis: 15 Pág. Departamento de Medio Ambiente y Agronomía​
While biodiversity is expected to enhance multiple ecosystem functions (EFs), the different roles of multiple biodiversity dimensions remain difficult to disentangle without carefully designed experiments. We sowed plant communities with independent levels of functional (FD) and phylogenetic diversities (PD), combined with different levels of fertilization, to investigate their direct and indirect roles on multiple EFs, including plant-related EFs (plant biomass productivity, litter decomposability), soil fertility (organic carbon and nutrient pool variables), soil microbial activity (respiration and nutrient cycling), and an overall multifunctionality. We expected an increase in most EFs in communities with higher values of FD and/or PD via complementarity effects, but also the dominant plant types (using community weighted mean, CWM, independent of FD and PD) via selection effects on several EFs. The results showed strong direct effects of different dimensions of plant functional structure parameters on plant-related EFs, through either CWM or FD, with weak effects of PD. Fertilization had significant effects on one soil microbial activity and indirect effects on the other variables via changes in soil abiotic properties. Dominant plant types and FD showed only indirect effects on soil microbial activity, through litter decomposition and soil abiotic properties, highlighting the importance of cascading effects. This study shows the relevance of complementary dimensions of biodiversity for assessing both direct and cascading effects on multiple EFs.
The study was supported by the Czech Science Foundation grant GAˇCR20-13637S, by Spanish Plan Nacional de I+D+i (project PGC2018-099027-B-I00), by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme (TANDEM; project id. 626392) and by the Young Researchers R&D Project.Ref. M2165—INTRANESTI—financed by Community of Madrid and Rey Juan Carlos University. Enrique Valencia was funded by the 2017 program for attracting and retaining talent of Comunidad de Madrid (no.2017-T2/AMB-5406). Carlos P. Carmona was supported by the Estonian Research Council (PSG293) and theEuropean Regional Development Fund via the MobilitasPluss programme (MOBERC40).
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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