scholarly journals Increasing effects of chronic nutrient enrichment on plant diversity loss and ecosystem productivity over time

Ecology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric W. Seabloom ◽  
Peter B. Adler ◽  
Juan Alberti ◽  
Lori Biederman ◽  
Yvonne M. Buckley ◽  
...  
2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1694) ◽  
pp. 20150277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan Craven ◽  
Forest Isbell ◽  
Pete Manning ◽  
John Connolly ◽  
Helge Bruelheide ◽  
...  

Global change drivers are rapidly altering resource availability and biodiversity. While there is consensus that greater biodiversity increases the functioning of ecosystems, the extent to which biodiversity buffers ecosystem productivity in response to changes in resource availability remains unclear. We use data from 16 grassland experiments across North America and Europe that manipulated plant species richness and one of two essential resources—soil nutrients or water—to assess the direction and strength of the interaction between plant diversity and resource alteration on above-ground productivity and net biodiversity, complementarity, and selection effects. Despite strong increases in productivity with nutrient addition and decreases in productivity with drought, we found that resource alterations did not alter biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships. Our results suggest that these relationships are largely determined by increases in complementarity effects along plant species richness gradients. Although nutrient addition reduced complementarity effects at high diversity, this appears to be due to high biomass in monocultures under nutrient enrichment. Our results indicate that diversity and the complementarity of species are important regulators of grassland ecosystem productivity, regardless of changes in other drivers of ecosystem function.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 104055
Author(s):  
Chao Wang ◽  
Yujia Tang ◽  
Xiaona Li ◽  
Weiwei Zhang ◽  
Chunqiao Zhao ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (9) ◽  
pp. 4464-4470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Harrison ◽  
Marko J. Spasojevic ◽  
Daijiang Li

Climate strongly shapes plant diversity over large spatial scales, with relatively warm and wet (benign, productive) regions supporting greater numbers of species. Unresolved aspects of this relationship include what causes it, whether it permeates to community diversity at smaller spatial scales, whether it is accompanied by patterns in functional and phylogenetic diversity as some hypotheses predict, and whether it is paralleled by climate-driven changes in diversity over time. Here, studies of Californian plants are reviewed and new analyses are conducted to synthesize climate–diversity relationships in space and time. Across spatial scales and organizational levels, plant diversity is maximized in more productive (wetter) climates, and these consistent spatial relationships are mirrored in losses of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity over time during a recent climatic drying trend. These results support the tolerance and climatic niche conservatism hypotheses for climate–diversity relationships, and suggest there is some predictability to future changes in diversity in water-limited climates.


Author(s):  
Naiara López-Rojo ◽  
Javier Pérez ◽  
Jesús Pozo ◽  
Ana Basaguren ◽  
Unai Apodaka-Etxebarria ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamaljit Kaur ◽  
David J. Midmore ◽  
Rajesh K. Jalota ◽  
Nanjappa Ashwath

Land clearing in Queensland is often practised to enhance pasture production, and hence, increase financial returns from beef production. The benefits of clearing have been quantified in terms of short-term gains in pasture yield but have not adequately accounted for possible medium- or longer-term impediments that may be attributed to clearing. Therefore, impacts of clearing and the subsequent sowing of exotic grasses such as Cenchrus ciliaris L. on pasture composition and production were studied. To achieve this, paired sites were selected representing cleared and uncleared pastures across three different times since clearing (i.e. 5, 11–13 and 33 years since clearing) for the three dominant tree communities of central Queensland (i.e. Eucalyptus populnea F.Muell. (poplar box), E. melanophloia F.Muell. (silver-leaved ironbark) and Acacia harpophylla F.Muell. ex. Benth. (brigalow)). The results demonstrated that species diversity declined with clearing and sowing of exotic pastures. Species diversity and pasture production were negatively related. Although pasture yield was 2–3 times greater 13 years after clearing of E. populnea and A. harpohylla, the gains in pasture yield were not consistent over time, yields being only 1.5 times greater after 33 years of clearing. In E. melanophloia, an increase in the yield of only 1.5–1.8 times occurred 5 years after clearing compared with uncleared pastures, whereas 33 years after clearing, yield was 3/4 of that in uncleared pastures. The initial gains in pasture yield were accompanied by a loss of plant diversity that may affect ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling or soil mineralisation, and the longer-term production gains.


Oecologia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 179 (1) ◽  
pp. 261-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongling Yang ◽  
Yann Hautier ◽  
Elizabeth T. Borer ◽  
Chunhui Zhang ◽  
Guozhen Du

1992 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 1198-1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk Lohman ◽  
John R. Jones ◽  
Bruce D. Perkins

Ambient nutrient concentrations (TN and TP) and periphyton biomass (Chl a) were measured every 2 wk during March–November in 1985 and 1986 at 22 sites on 12 streams in the northern Ozarks, Missouri. Benthic Chl a was positively correlated in both years with log TN (R2 = 0.58, 0.60) and with log TP (R2 = 0.47, 0.60). When sites were grouped by the degree of enrichment and plotted over time, benthic Chl a decreased at all sites after flood events, but rebounded more rapidly at highly enriched sites. Differences in recovery following flooding were most obvious in fall 1986, when both high and moderately enriched sites exhibited similar biomass accrual patterns, reaching mean benthic Chl a of 397.4 and 321.1 mg∙m−2, respectively, within 42 d after a catastrophic flood. In contrast, average benthic Chl a at nutrient-poor sites reached a maximum level of 76.8 mg∙m−2 within 28 d after flooding, suggesting that maximum standing crops are influenced by both nutrient supply and the length of the flood-free period.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 145-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Chelli ◽  
Enrico Simonetti ◽  
Giandiego Campetella ◽  
Alessandro Chiarucci ◽  
Marco Cervellini ◽  
...  

Species pool conservation is critical for the stability of ecosystem processes. However, climate and land use changes will likely affect biodiversity, and managers of protected areas are under increasing pressure to monitor native species diversity changes by approaches that are scientifically sound and comparable over time. Here we describe a plant diversity monitoring system in use since 2002 in the “Montagna di Torricchio” Nature Reserve (LTER_EU_IT_033), a Central Apennines representative area of 317 ha, most of which is under strict protection. The aim of this paper was to assess changes in plant species richness over time and to deduce the patterns of species assemblage. The monitoring system was based on a probabilistic sampling design representative of the different physiognomic vegetation types occurring in the Reserve. A total of 34 plots (10×10m) were sampled in 2002, 2003 and 2015, and their species presence/absence and relative coverage were estimated. Repeated measure ANOVA was used to test for plot-level and ecosystem-based changes in species richness along the study period. Temporal nestedness and temporal turnover metrics were used to assess patterns of species’ compositional changes. The results showed significantly different levels of species richness depending on the year, with the lowest value in 2003, probably linked to extreme drought events. Forest systems were comparatively stable, demonstrating the capacity to buffer interannual climate variability. Regarding compositional changes along the entire period (2002–2015), we found random patterns of both temporal nestedness and turnover, indicating stability in species composition. However, we also showed the contemporary occurrence of species loss and species replacement processes, considering the dry year 2003, a finding which should be further explored through fine-scale studies to unravel mechanisms of community assembly under drought. The use of a probabilistic sampling design representative of the different physiognomic vegetation types proved to be advantageous in monitoring the Nature Reserve vegetation and collecting reliable quantitative information. This data, in turn, provides the basis for improvements in management practices and proposed adaptation measures.


2013 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 763-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Fernandes ◽  
Sofia Duarte ◽  
Fernanda Cássio ◽  
Cláudia Pascoal

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