Abstract
AbstractAlthough it is known that multiple interactions among plant functional traits, microbial properties, and abiotic soil parameters influence the nutrient turnover, the relative contribution of each of these groups of variables is poorly understood. We manipulated grassland plant functional composition and soil nitrogen (N) availability in a multisite mesocosm experiment to quantify their relative effects on soil N turnover. Overall, root traits, arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization, denitrification potential, as well as N availability and water availability, best explained the variation in measured ecosystem properties, especially the trade‐off between nutrient sequestration and plant biomass production. Their relative contributions varied with soil N availability. In relatively N‐poor soils (10–20 μg·N·g−1 soil), N turnover was mainly controlled by microbial properties and abiotic soil parameters, whereas in the relatively N‐rich soils (110–120 μg·N·g−1 soil), N turnover was mainly controlled by plant traits and microbial properties. This experiment is a strong demonstration of the importance of functional characteristics of both plants and soil microbes, and their interplay with soil N availability, for N turnover in grassland soils.
Highlights
IntroductionChanges in land use and land management practices can radically modify the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems (Zeller et al 2000, Schmitt et al 2010, Schulze et al 2010) by simultaneously altering soil abiotic conditions, and biotic factors such as plant community composition and the structure and functioning of soil biota (Sala et al 2000, Laliberte and Tylianakis 2012).v www.esajournals.orgNovember 2016 v Volume 7(11) v Article e01448 most studies to date on management impacts on ecosystem processes have focused on the individual effects of these different variables (Wardle et al 2004, Van der Putten et al 2009), and as a result, our understanding of the contributions of each group of biotic or abiotic variables, and of their interactive impacts, is limited (Le Roux et al 2013)
The treatments still provided a gradient of plant traits community-weighted means and functional divergences (Appendices S6, S7, and S8), with Community-w eighted mean traits (CWM) values of plant traits covering the range of values found in the field (Grigulis et al 2013, Legay et al 2014)
The results of our cross-s ite study confirmed that ecosystem properties in perennial grasslands were related to abiotic soil parameters, plant functional traits, and microbial properties
Summary
Changes in land use and land management practices can radically modify the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems (Zeller et al 2000, Schmitt et al 2010, Schulze et al 2010) by simultaneously altering soil abiotic conditions, and biotic factors such as plant community composition and the structure and functioning of soil biota (Sala et al 2000, Laliberte and Tylianakis 2012).v www.esajournals.orgNovember 2016 v Volume 7(11) v Article e01448 most studies to date on management impacts on ecosystem processes have focused on the individual effects of these different variables (Wardle et al 2004, Van der Putten et al 2009), and as a result, our understanding of the contributions of each group of biotic or abiotic variables, and of their interactive impacts, is limited (Le Roux et al 2013). In addition to the well-documented direct eff ects of abiotic soil parameters on nutrient cycling (Qian and Cai 2007), there is increasing evidence that plant functional traits (plant traits) (Denef et al 2009, Laughlin 2011, Legay et al 2014) and microbial community structure (Krause et al 2014) can mediate strong indirect effects on processes of soil nutrient cycling (De Vries et al 2015, De Vries and Bardgett 2016) Both aboveground and belowground biomass productions have been related to the availabilities of nutrients and water in soil (Hawkins et al 2003), which are directly related to plant traits (Mokany et al 2008, Lavorel et al 2011), and to microbial community composition, such as the proportion of fungi to bacteria in soil (van der Heijden et al 2008). De Vries et al (2012) showed across a wide range of English grasslands that while fungi-dominated belowground communities were associated with plant traits disclosing a conservative strategy (low specific leaf area [SLA] and leaf N content [LNC]), bacteria-d ominated communities were associated with exploitative plant traits (high SLA and LNC)
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