Abstract
Knowledge from agriculture and ecological field studies suggests that plant monocultures lose productivity over time, but the drivers underlying the long‐term performance of monocultures of grassland species are not completely understood. We examined the performance of 60 grassland species growing in monoculture for 12 years in a biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment) and studied three groups of biotic drivers potentially affecting plant performance in monocultures over time: 1) soil biota (nematode communities, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi), 2) leaf traits related to leaf economics spectrum, and 3) plant life‐cycle characteristics related to buffered population growth (viable seeds in topsoil, seedling density, seed survival). Monocultures of 15 out of 60 species increased productivity, while monocultures of the remaining 45 species showed slight to strong losses of productivity over time, resulting in zero biomass in 15 species. All three biotic drivers were related to the varying long‐term performance of monocultures. Their combined influence on monoculture performance could be interpreted as a tradeoff between ‘fast’ versus ‘slow’ life strategies. ‘Fast’ species showed rapid resource use and little buffering of population growth through a viable seed bank, which led to high biomass production in young monocultures but a consecutive loss of biomass production over time. ‘Slow’ species were characterized by positive nematode effects (high abundance of predatory nematodes), conservative use of resources, and a viable seed bank with high recruitment success resulting in gradually increasing productivity over time. In summary, our study highlights the importance of studying long‐term field monocultures to investigate the complex role of different biotic drivers responsible for productivity changes over time. These insights provide an essential baseline for estimating biodiversity effects on productivity as well as to understand and predict long‐term performance of plant populations.
Highlights
Many biodiversity experiments have shown that plant communities are more productive with higher plant species and functional group richness (Hector et al 1999, Cardinale et al 2007, Marquard et al 2009)
We examined the performance of 60 grassland species growing in monoculture for 12 years in a biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment) and studied three groups of biotic drivers potentially affecting plant performance in monocultures over time: 1) soil biota, 2) leaf traits related to leaf economics spectrum, and 3) plant life-cycle characteristics related to buffered population growth
Little is known about the interplay of soil biota, plant nutrient economy and lifecycle characteristics, leading to productivity changes over long time in monocultures. To test how these potential drivers are related to different performances of plant species growing in monoculture, we studied the changes in aboveground biomass production over 12 years of 60 grassland species in monocultures in a large biodiversity experiment (‘Monoculture experiment’ as part of the Jena Experiment)
Summary
Many biodiversity experiments have shown that plant communities are more productive with higher plant species and functional group richness (Hector et al 1999, Cardinale et al 2007, Marquard et al 2009). In long-term biodiversity experiments, species richness–productivity relationships strengthen over time (Reich et al 2012, GuerreroRamírez et al 2017). This may result from a deterioration of monoculture performance or an increase in mixture performance over time (Meyer et al 2016, Guerrero-Ramírez et al 2017). Monoculture and mixture biomass production generally declined over time, but temporal changes varied considerable among species (Marquard et al 2013). The mechanisms underlying these varying performances of plant species in monoculture are not well understood
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