Abstract
Flooding frequency is predicted to increase during the next decades, calling for a better understanding of impacts on terrestrial ecosystems and for developing strategies to mitigate potential damage. Plant diversity is expected to buffer flooding effects by providing a broad range of species’ responses. Here we report on the response of soil processes to a severe summer flood in 2013, which affected major parts of central Europe. We compared soil microbial respiration, biomass, nutrient limitation and enzyme activity in a grassland biodiversity experiment in Germany before flooding, one week and three months after the flood. Microbial biomass was reduced in the severely flooded plots at high, but not at low plant functional group richness. Flooding alleviated microbial nitrogen limitation, presumably due the input of nutrient-rich sediments. Further, the activity of soil enzymes including 1,4-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase, phenol oxidase and peroxidase increased with flooding severity, suggesting increased chitin and lignin degradation as a consequence of the input of detritus in sediments. Flooding effects were enhanced at higher plant diversity, indicating that plant diversity temporarily reduces stability of soil processes during flooding. The long-term impacts, however, remain unknown and deserve further investigation.
Highlights
Climate change has increased the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events such as wildfires and floods [1,2]
Microbial biomass significantly changed with flooding index, but the effect varied with plant functional group richness, with a slight increase at low plant functional group richness and a strong decrease in more severely flooded plots of high plant functional group richness (Fig 1,Table 1)
Differences of microbial growth of C- and carbon and phosphorus (CP)-supplemented microorganisms increased with increasing flooding index (Fig 2A, Table 1) and with increasing plant species richness (Fig 3, Table 1)
Summary
Climate change has increased the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events such as wildfires and floods [1,2]. Floods affect soil structure and fertility, reducing nutrient availability and initiating primary succession processes in the case of strong disturbances [2]. Moderate floods may beneficially affect nutrient cycling and increase habitat heterogeneity thereby fostering biodiversity [2]. Biodiversity itself can influence the way ecosystems respond to disturbances such as flooding. Plant diversity has been shown to increase the resistance of community functions to wet (as well as dry) conditions [3]. Results from a recent flood which hit the Jena Experiment, a large scale field experiment exploring plant diversity-ecosystem functioning relationships [4], suggest that stability decreases
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