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Projekt Druckansicht

Oberirdisch-unterirdische Interaktionen als Steuergröße für den Zusammenhang zwischen Pflanzendiversität und Ökosystemfunktion

Fachliche Zuordnung Ökologie und Biodiversität der Pflanzen und Ökosysteme
Ökologie und Biodiversität der Tiere und Ökosysteme, Organismische Interaktionen
Förderung Förderung von 2012 bis 2021
Projektkennung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 220971425
 
Erstellungsjahr 2018

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

The relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem functioning is likely to be co-determined by aboveground-belowground multitrophic interactions. Considering and manipulating these interactions thus is likely to improve the mechanistic understanding of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships. The present project investigated long-term plant diversity effects on ecosystem functions and their stability, and related these diversity effects to temporal changes in soil communities and abiotic properties in grasslands and forests. Moreover, biodiversity effects and multitrophic interactions were studied in different global change contexts. A combination of field experiments, lab experiments, and meta-analyses and syntheses were used to study longterm biodiversity effects in the field, specific mechanisms under controlled conditions, and general patterns across contexts, respectively. The main objective of this proposal was to disentangle the driving forces of plant diversity effects on soil biota as well as subsequent positive and negative feedback effects on plants and to advance BEF research through syntheses and meta-analyses. More specifically, the project aimed to (i) investigate long-term plant diversity effects on soil biota and functions in multiple global change scenarios and environmental conditions; (ii) investigate the significance of plant diversity-induced positive and negative soil feedback effects on plant performance; (iii) investigate if anthropogenic stressors reinforce plant diversity effects on soil biota and subsequent soil feedback effects; and (iv) synthesize results and perform metaanalyses in order to understand inconsistent findings of previous studies on plant diversity effects on ecosystem functions. The main outcomes of this Emmy Noether group were to show that (1) plant diversity effects on ecosystem functions strengthen over time, and that this change in biodiversity effects is partly due to plant diversity-induced changes in soil biotic and abiotic conditions; (2) the trajectory of this temporal change depends on local soil conditions; (3) strengthening biodiversity effects are due to both better performing polycultures and deteriorating monocultures over time; (4) changing environmental conditions alter biotic interactions and subsequent BEF relationships; (5) biodiversity buffers ecosystem functions against environmental perturbations; and (6) biodiversity effects are significant under ambient and future environmental conditions. These findings have stimulated subsequent and future research, such as in the Jena Experiment (http://www.the-jenaexperiment.de/), where soil history effects on BEF relationships are studied, and in the MyDiv experiment (https://www.idiv.de/research/platforms_and_networks/mydiv.html), where the role of mycorrhiza in tree nutrient uptake, competition, and complementarity are explored.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

 
 

Zusatzinformationen

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