Aboveground-belowground interactions drive the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem function
Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
Final Report Abstract
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.
Publications
- (2013) Plant diversity effects on soil food webs are stronger than those of elevated CO 2 and N deposition in a long-term grassland experiment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110: 6889-6894
Eisenhauer N, Dobies T, Cesarz S, Hobbie SE, Meyer RJ, Worm K, Reich PB
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1217382110) - (2015) Biodiversity increases the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate extremes. Nature 526: 574-577
Isbell F, Craven D, Connolly J, Loreau M, Schmid B, Beierkuhnlein H, Bezemer TM, Bonin C, Bruelheide H, de Luca E, Ebeling A, Griffin J, Guo Q, Hautier Y, Hector A, Jentsch A, Kreyling J, Lanta V, Manning P, Meyer ST, Mori AS, Naeem S, Niklaus PA, Polley HW, Reich PB, Roscher C, Seabloom EW, Smith MD, Thakur MP, Tilman D, Tracy BF, van der Putten WH, van Ruijven J, Weigelt A, Weisser WW, Wilsey B, Eisenhauer N
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15374) - (2015) Flooding disturbances increase resource availability and productivity, but reduce stability in diverse plant communities. Nature Communications 6: 6092
Wright AJ, Ebeling A, de Kroon H, Roscher C, Weigelt A, Buchmann N, Buchmann T, Fischer C, Hacker N, Hildebrandt A, Leimer S, Mommer L, Oelmann Y, Scheu S, Steinauer K, Strecker T, Weisser WW, Wilcke W, Eisenhauer N
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7092) - (2015) Plant diversity drives soil microbial biomass carbon in grasslands irrespective of global environmental change factors. Global Change Biology 21: 4076-4085
Thakur MP, Milcu A, Manning P, Niklaus PA, Roscher C, Power S, Reich PB, Scheu S, Tilman D, Ai F, Guo H, Ji R, Pierce S, Guerrero Ramirez N, Richter AN, Steinauer K, Strecker T, Vogel A, Eisenhauer N
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13011) - (2017) Climate warming promotes species diversity but also taxonomic redundancy in complex environments. Science Advances 3: e1700866
Thakur MP, Tilman D, Purschke O, Ciobanu M, Cowles J, Isbell F, Wragg PD, Eisenhauer N
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1700866) - (2017) Consumers control carbon. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1: 1596-1597
Eisenhauer N
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0352-y) - (2017) Diversity-dependent temporal divergence of ecosystem functioning in experimental ecosystems. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1, 1639-1642
Guerrero-Ramirez NR, Craven D, Reich PB, Ewel JJ, Isbell F, Koricheva J, Parrotta JA, Auge H, Erickson HE, Forrester DI, Hector H, Joshi J, Montagnini F, Palmborg C, Piotto D, Potvin C, Roscher C, van Ruijven J, Tilman D, Wilsey B and Eisenhauer N
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0325-1) - (2017) Trophic and non-trophic interactions influence the mechanisms underlying biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships under different abiotic conditions. Oikos 126: 1748-1759
Guerrero-Ramirez NR, Eisenhauer N
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.04190) - (2017) Warming alters energetic structure and function but not resilience of soil food webs. Nature Climate Change 7: 895-900
Schwarz B, Barnes AD, Thakur MP, Brose U, Ciobanu M, Reich PB, Rich RL, Rosenbaum B, Stefanski A and Eisenhauer N
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0002-z) - (2018) Reduced feeding activity of soil detritivores under warmer and drier conditions. Nature Climate Change 8: 75-78
Thakur MP, Reich PB, Hobbie SE, Stefanski A, Rich R, Rice KE, Eddy WC, Eisenhauer N
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0032-6)
