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Plant species percent cover data: Soil Heterogeneity and Plant Diversity in an Oak Savanna

This experiment was established in field D in August of 1991. There are 30, 2m x 2m plots. These plots are in prairie openings in unmanipulated natural vegetation. They were placed in a haphazard manner, being about 20m apart within an opening. Each plot was divided into 16, 0.5m x 0.5m subplots. Percent cover estimates of vegetation are done in September for each of the sixteen subplots in each of the 30 plots.

Root biomass data: Natural Enemies, Plant Diversity and Plant Community Composition

The purpose of this experiment is to determine the influences of natural enemies, including plant pathogenic fungi and insect pests, influence plant community composition, productivity, and diversity over time. The experiment is being conducted in a subset of plots within the Big Biodiversity field, including monoculture, 2-species, 4-species, 8-species, 16-species, and 32-species plots. There are 5 different treatments: foliar fungicide, soil drench fungicide, foliar insecticide, the combination of all pesticides, and nontreated control. The pesticides are applied repeatedly throughout the growing season. Within the plots, community productivity, species composition, percent cover, and pest damage are being quantified over time.

e052 Field B Microplot Arthropod Sweepnet Sampling:Interactive Effects of Fertility and Distribution on Plant Community Diversity and Structure

There are four levels of nitrogen, corresponding to treatments A, C, F and G in E001, applied at the same time as in that experiment. For a description of fertilizer added to E052, see file fertilization details. There are four levels of soil disturbance designated 1, 2, 3 and 4. Level 1: undisturbed Level 2: 1 pass with a 7 HP Honda rear-tined rototiller with the elevator set to till to a depth of 9 inches Level 3: 2 passes or however many required to produce about 50% bare ground Level 4: 3 passes or however many required to produce 100% bare ground. This requires 3 passes in some plots but 5 or 6 in others. In addition, all woody vegetation not destroyed by tilling is cut at the base. Rototilling is applied in late April. Each fertilization treatment receives each disturbance treatment, for a total of sixteen treatments. There are four replicates of each of the sixteen treatments. In addition, the four extreme ends (lowest N, lowest disturbance; highest N, lowest disturbance, etc. ) are replicated an additional ten times. Treatments are applied in a completely randomized design. Each of the 104 plots is 5m x 5m. Measurements taken at E052 will include: 1) species abundances, 2) community biomass allocation to leaves/roots/stems/flowers, 3) above and below ground net primary production and 4) rates of nitrogen mineralization. For a list of treatments, see the treatment layouts in file trmte52. The plots in E052 are enclosed by a fence to exclude mammalian herbivores. Galvanized welded-wire hardware cloth with 6mm x 6mm openings was buried to a depth of 50cm. Additional hardware cloth extends 60cm above the ground and poultry netting extends to 2m above the ground. In 1990, ten plots of each of four treatments (N1D1, N1D4, N4D1, N4D4, where N is the level of nitrogen added and D is the disturbance treatment) were randomly selected for the competition experiment. The above and belowground effects of neighbors on transplanted grass seedlings were measured using three

Streptomyces pathogen suppressive activity in plant communities varying in diversity:Plant host and plant diversity effects on rhizosphere microbial community composition, diversity, structure, and function.

Effects of plant host and plant community diversity on soil rhizosphere microbial community composition, diversity, structure, and function were explored in long-term experimental plots. Soil samples were collected from the rhizosphere of one of 4 target plants species (Andropogon gerardii, Schizachyrium scoparium, Lespedeza capitata, or Lupinus perennis) growing in 1, 4, 8, 16, or 32-species plots. Pathogen-suppressive activities of soil streptomycetes were determined for every sample. In addition, soil metagenomic analyses were performed targeting bacterial or streptomycete communities. Soil edaphic characteristics were determined for every sample. Analyses consider both the effects of plant host and plant community diversity on microbial community structure and function, and the relationships of diverse taxa with plant host, plant community diversity, and soil edaphic characteristics.

openCC0May 2019View details →

Local plant diversity and soybean biological control 2011 Aphid and Enemy Surveys:Biodiversity II: Effects of Plant Biodiversity on Population and Ecosystem Processes

Biodiversity II (E120) is designed to determine how the number of plant species affects the dynamics of ecological processes at the population, community, and ecosystem levels. By experimentally manipulating the number of species and the kinds of species, the amount of plant growth and the change from year to year, that result can be examined. Plots are large (9m x 9m actively maintained) and well-replicated, allowing responses of plant pathogens, insect herbivores, seed predators, soil parameters, invasive plant species and other variables to also be studied. Plots were seeded in May 1994 to have 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 species, with roughly 30 replicates of each diversity level. The species composition of each plot was chosen by random draw from a pool of 18 grassland perennials that included four warm-season (C4) grasses, four cool-season (C3) grasses, four legumes, four non-legume forbs, and two woody species. All species occur in monoculture allowing comparison of responses of each species in monoculture to combinations of these same species. The experiment was established in 1994 by the lead investigators David Tilman, Peter Reich, Johannes Knops, and David Wedin. Experiment 120 is similar to Experiment 123, but it uses larger plots to provide a large capacity for long-term subexperiments.

Local plant diversity and soybean biological control 2012 Enemy Surveys:Biodiversity II: Effects of Plant Biodiversity on Population and Ecosystem Processes

Leaf carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus:Natural Enemies, Plant Diversity and Plant Community Composition

openCC0Jun 2021View details →

Multispectral Radiometry percent reflectance:Natural Enemies, Plant Diversity and Plant Community Composition

Greenhouse test of pesticide effects on plant growth:Natural Enemies, Plant Diversity and Plant Community Composition

opencc-zeroMay 2020View details →

Species diversity of fungal endophytes across a stress gradient for plants

<ul> <li>Foliar fungal endophytes are one of the most diverse guilds of symbiotic fungi found in the photosynthetic tissues of every plant lineage, but it is unclear how plant environments and leaf resource availability shape their diversity.</li> <li>We explored correlations between leaf nutrient availability and endophyte diversity among Pinus muricata and Vaccinium ovatum plants growing across a soil nutrient gradient spanning a series of coastal terraces in Mendocino, California.</li> <li>Endophyte richness decreased in plants with higher leaf nitrogen‐to‐phosphorus ratios for both host species, but increased with sodium, which may be toxic to fungi at high concentrations. Isolation frequency, a proxy of fungal biomass, was not significantly predicted by any of the same leaf constituents in the two plant species.</li> <li>We propose that stressed plants can exhibit both low foliar nutrients or high levels of toxic compounds, and that both of these stress responses predict endophyte species richness. Stressful conditions that limit growth of fungi may increase their diversity due to the suppression of otherwise dominating species. Differences between the host species in their endophyte communities may be explained by host specificity, leaf phenology, or microclimates.</li> </ul>

opencc-zeroJul 2020View details →

Data from: Litter addition decreases plant diversity by suppressing seeding in a semi-arid grassland, Northern China

Plant community diversity is conducive to maintain the regional ecosystems stability and ecosystem services. Seed germination is one of the main ways to regulate plant diversity, owing to seedling recruitment as a basis for plant community renewal. However, the exact mechanism of how plant litter affects seedling recruitment and species richness is not yet fully understood. Therefore, a litter addition and removal experiment were established in a semiarid grassland to study the effects of plant litter on seedling recruitment and species richness from April to August in 2016 and 2017 in Northern China. The positive correlation between species richness and seedling recruitment indicated that a guarantee of seedling recruitment was the main precondition to protect species richness. Adding rather than removing litter significantly reduced species richness. Litter addition inhibited species richness by directly increasing mechanical damage or indirectly reducing photosynthetically active radiation and seedling recruitment. The results of this study are conducive to understand the evolutionary and regulatory mechanisms of community species richness and seedling recruitment in grassland ecosystems after adding or removing plant litter.

opencc-zeroJun 2020View details →

Modern pollen–plant diversity relationships inform palaeoecological reconstructions of functional and phylogenetic diversity in calcareous fens

Predicting the trajectory of ongoing diversity loss requires knowledge of historical development of community assemblages. Long-term data from paleoecological investigations combined with key biodiversity measures in ecology such as taxonomic richness, functional diversity (FD), phylogenetic diversity (PD) and environmental factors expressed as Ellenberg indicator values (EIVs) could provide that knowledge. We explored the modern pollen–plant (moss polster pollen vs. surrounding vegetation) diversity relationships for herbaceous and woody taxa in calcareous fens from two different regions in Estonia, NE Europe. Associations of taxonomic richness, vegetation composition, FD (including functional alpha diversity and trait composition), PD and EIVs in modern pollen vs. plant data were studied with correlation analysis, Procrustes analysis and linear regression models. To test their potential use in palaeoreconstructions, diversity measures were applied on pollen data from Kanna spring fen reflecting fen vegetation development over the last nine millennia and diversity changes through time were studied using generalized additive models. Results showed significant pollen–plant richness correlations for herbaceous taxa at vegetation estimate scales up to 6 m radius and Procrustes analysis showed significant compositional associations at all plant estimate scales (up to 100 m). Woody taxa had no significant pollen–plant richness correlations but composition relationships were significant at plant estimate scales of 6–100 m. Traits that were best reflected by pollen data (both in terms of trait composition and functional alpha diversity) among woody and herbaceous taxa were seed number, clonality, SLA and LDMC. PD of herbaceous species was reflected by pollen data. Among the EIVs, Ellenberg L and T were significantly reflected by pollen data for both woody and herbaceous communities. Palaeoreconstruction from Kanna fen indicates that trends of woody taxa are mostly related to long-term changes in climate while diversity variables of herbaceous taxa closely follow autogenic processes within the fen. We suggest that pollen-based diversity estimates should be calculated separately for woody and herbaceous taxa as they clearly represent different spatial scales. Present study suggests that linking sedimentary pollen data with FD, PD and EIVs provides possibilities to examine long-term trends in community assembly and ecosystem processes that would be undetectable from traditional pollen diagrams.

opencc-zeroJul 2020View details →

Data from: Invasive dominance and resident diversity: unpacking the impact of plant invasion on biodiversity and ecosystem function

Plant invasions have consistently been shown to cause significant reductions in the diversity of recipient plant communities; an effect that can cascade through ecosystems to impact the stocks and flows of nutrients and energy as well as the diversity of higher trophic levels. However, the manner in which invasive plants alter ecosystem functioning and trophic interactions is highly variable can occur through the direct effects of the invader's abundance and its indirect effects via changes in community diversity. Understanding the nature of these interactions between plant invasion, community diversity and ecosystem functioning can provide insight for ecosystem managers. We evaluated whether plant invasion alters the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF) by comparing BEF models that either include or subtract the diversity and function values associated with the invasive vine, Vincetoxicum rossicum. To do this, we 1) characterize V. rossicum within the functional trait space of the regional species pool; 2) assess how different components of plant biodiversity vary along a V. rossicum invasion gradient; and 3) examine how V. rossicum invasion affects BEF relationships and trophic interactions, both at the plot-scale and incrementally along a site-level invasion gradient. In general, we found that V. rossicum invasion was associated with significant declines in plant community diversity across a suite of biodiversity measures; a consequence of V. rossicum's functional trait structure (height and specific leaf area). We also found that V. rossicum invasion resulted in significantly greater productivity (i.e. dominance effects in the inclusion model), but also that the diversity of the remaining resident community was positively associated with productivity (i.e. niche complementarity in the subtraction model). Further, we observed that while the relationship between flower cover and pollinator diversity was positive for both the inclusion and subtraction models, this relationship was stronger in the absence of V. rossicum. Our findings suggest that while plant invasion can result in enhanced productivity via dominance effects, this comes at the cost of significant declines in diversity. However, it is also the case that remaining resident diversity can exhibit positive effects on multiple functions and support for higher trophic levels.

opencc-zeroMar 2021View details →

Plant intraspecific functional trait variation is related to within-habitat heterogeneity and genetic diversity in Trifolium montanum L.

Intraspecific trait variation (ITV), based on available genetic diversity, is one of the major means plant populations can respond to environmental variability. The study of functional trait variation and diversity has become popular in ecological research, e.g. as a proxy for plant performance influencing fitness. Up to now, it is unclear which aspects of intraspecific functional trait variation (iFDCV) can be attributed to the environment or genetics under natural conditions. Here, we examined 260 individuals from 13 locations of the rare (semi-)dry calcareous grassland species Trifolium montanum L. in terms of iFDCV, within-habitat heterogeneity, and genetic diversity. The iFDCV was assessed by measuring functional traits (releasing height, biomass, leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, Fv/Fm, performance index, stomatal pore surface, and stomatal pore area index). Abiotic within-habitat heterogeneity was derived from altitude, slope exposure, slope, leaf area index, soil depth, and further soil factors. Based on microsatellites, we calculated expected heterozygosity (He) because it best-explained, among other indices, iFDCV. We performed multiple linear regression models quantifying relationships among iFDCV, abiotic within-habitat heterogeneity and genetic diversity, and also between separate functional traits and abiotic within-habitat heterogeneity or genetic diversity. We found that abiotic within-habitat heterogeneity influenced iFDCV twice as strong compared to genetic diversity. Both aspects together explained 77% of variation in iFDCV (Radj² = 0.77, F2, 10 = 21.66, p < 0.001). The majority of functional traits (releasing height, biomass, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, Fv/Fm and performance index) were related to abiotic habitat conditions indicating responses to environmental heterogeneity. In contrast, morphology-related functional traits (releasing height, biomass and leaf area) were only related to genetics. Our results suggest that both within-habitat heterogeneity and genetic diversity affect iFDCV, and are thus crucial to consider when aiming to understand or predict changes of plant species performance under changing environmental conditions.

zenodo32/100

Holocene plant diversity dynamics shows a distinct biogeographical pattern in temperate Europe

Data for manuscript "Holocene plant diversity dynamics shows a distinct biogeographical pattern in temperate Europe" by Roleček J., Abraham V., Vild O., Svitavská Svobodová H., Jamrichová E., Plesková Z., Pokorný P. & Kune&scaron; P.  Data originate from 18 sites in Czech and Slovak Republic. Original data and further metadata are stored in <a href="https://botany.natur.cuni.cz/palycz/">Czech Quaternary Palynological Database</a>. Data presented here were adjusted by following procedure: Pollen counts of trees were adjusted (divided) by <a href="https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.908862">mean pollen productivity for North Hemisphere</a> : Abies    6.88 Alnus    7.46 Betula    4.4 Carpinus betulus    4.52 Corylus    1.97 Fagus    1.96 Fraxinus excelsior-Typ    1.25 Juniperus    9.8 Picea    2.29 Pinus    10.47 Quercus    3.33 Tilia    1.17 Ulmus    7.32 and subsequently whole spectra were resampled for the same pollen sum (100 grains) in all depths and time windows (300 years). Resampling was done by function "spectra_to_target_sum" at <a href="https://github.com/vojtechabraham/pollen">https://github.com/vojtechabraham/pollen</a>. See repository <a href="https://github.com/vojtechabraham/HolDivTempEur">https://github.com/vojtechabraham/HolDivTempEur</a> for the analysis presented in the paper.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2020View details →

opencc-zeroAug 2020View details →

Species-specific effects of thermal stress on the expression of genetic variation across a diverse group of plant and animal taxa under experimental conditions

Assessing the genetic adaptive potential of populations and species is essential for better understanding evolutionary processes. However, the expression of genetic variation may depend on environmental conditions, which may speed up or slow down evolutionary responses. Thus, the same selection pressure may lead to different responses. Against this background, we here investigate the effects of thermal stress on genetic variation, mainly under controlled laboratory conditions. We estimated additive genetic variance (VA), narrow-sense heritability (h2), and the coefficient of genetic variation (CVA) under both benign control and stressful thermal conditions. We included six species spanning a diverse range of plant and animal taxa and a total of 25 morphological and life-history traits. Our results show that (1) thermal stress reduced fitness components, (2) the majority of traits showed significant genetic variation, and that (3) thermal stress affected the expression of genetic variation (VA, h2 or CVA) in only one third of the cases (25 of 75 analyses, mostly in one clonal species). Moreover, effects were highly species-specific, with genetic variation increasing in 11 and decreasing in 14 cases under stress. Our results hence indicate that thermal stress does not generally affect the expression of genetic variation under laboratory conditions but, nevertheless, increases or decreases genetic variation in specific cases. Consequently, predicting the rate of genetic adaptation might not be generally complicated by environmental variation, but requires a careful case-by-case consideration.

opencc-zeroSep 2020View details →

Data from: Exploring patterns of beta-diversity to test the consistency of biogeographical boundaries: a case study across forest plant communities of Italy

Aim. To date, despite their great potential biogeographical regionalization models have been mostly developed on descriptive and empirical bases. This paper aims at applying the beta-diversity framework on a statistically representative data set to analytically test the consistency of the biogeographical regionalization of Italian forests. Location. Italy Taxon. Vascular plants Methods. Forest plant communities were surveyed in 804 plots made in a statistically representative sample of forest communities, made by 201 sites of Italian forests across the three biogeographical regions of the country: Alpine, Continental, and Mediterranean. We conducted an ordination analysis and an analysis of beta diversity, decomposing it into its turnover and nestedness components. Results. Our results provide only partial support to the consistency of the biogeographical regionalization of Italy. While the differences in forest plant communities support the distinction between the Alpine and the other two regions, differences between Continental and Mediterranean regions had lower statistical support. Pairwise beta-diversity and its turnover component are higher between- than within biogeographical regions. This suggests that different regional species pools contribute to assembly of local communities and that spatial distance between-regions has a stronger effect than that within-regions. Main conclusions. Our findings confirm a biogeographical structure of the species pools that is captured by the biogeographical regionalization. However, non-significant differences between the Mediterranean and Continental biogeographical regions suggest that this biogeographical regionalization is not consistent for forest plant communities. Our results demonstrate that an analytical evaluation of species composition differences among regions using beta-diversity analysis is a promising approach for testing the consistency of biogeographical regionalization models. This approach is recommended to provide support to the biogeographic regionalization used in some environmental conservation polices adopted by EU.

opencc-zeroSep 2020View details →

Data from: Exotic species drive patterns of plant species diversity in 93 restored tallgrass prairies

A primary goal of restoration ecology is to understand the factors that generate variability in species diversity and composition among restorations. Plant communities may assemble deterministically towards a common community type, or they may assemble stochastically, ending differently because of weather conditions during establishment, soil legacy effects, or exotic species propagule pressure. To test these alternative hypotheses, we sampled plant communities and soil at 93 randomly selected restored prairies distributed throughout Iowa, USA. Five remnant sites were sampled as a reference. We tested our hypotheses using multiple regressions and investigated the strength of direct and indirect effects on species diversity and richness using structural equation models. The prairie restorations were highly variable in their age, size, diversity, soil characteristics, and how they were managed post-seeding. The strongest predictor of plant species richness and diversity was the degree of invasion, as measured by the abundance of exotic species. Restorations planted with species-rich seed mixes had reduced exotic species abundance, which led indirectly to higher species richness of restorations. Sites with higher organic matter and a more linear shape had a direct positive effect on exotic abundance, which in turn decreased diversity. We found little support for deterministic assembly, and diversity did not increase with the age of planting. Our results indicate that restored prairie communities tend to assemble into states of high or low diversity, driven by invasion from exotic plant species. Management of exotic species is essential for maximizing species diversity in temperate grassland restorations.

zenodo32/100

Supplementary material 1 from: Huang J, Guo Z, Tang S, Ren W, Chu G, Wang L, Zhao L, Yu R, Xu Y, Ding Y, Zang R (2020) Floristic composition and plant diversity in distribution areas of native species congeneric with Betula halophila in Xinjiang, northwest China. Nature Conservation 42: 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.42.54735

Figure S1. The correlation between environmental variables in distribution areas of five congeneric species with Betula halophila

opencc-zeroSep 2020View details →