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67 results for “soil heterogeneity”
Data from: Heterogeneity in plant-soil feedbacks and resident population dynamics affect mutual invasibility
1. Understanding the mechanisms governing coexistence is a central goal in ecology and has implications for conserving and restoring communities, yet the high diversity in many plant communities is difficult to explain. Theory suggests that plant-soil feedbacks (PSF) can lead to frequency-dependent coexistence by suppressing conspecifics more than heterospecifics, potentially helping to explain high-diversity plant communities. In addition, species-specific population dynamics, including the rate at which individuals are replaced in a population, or population turnover rate, may influence coexistence outcomes. 2. We have created a rigorous test of the coexistence predictions of theory by generating a soil heterogeneity experiment in the field and testing for mutual invasibility by establishing resident populations, then experimentally invading them. Experimental tests of mutual invasibility can demonstrate coexistence because, if species are able to invade one another's populations when at low density, they should exhibit long-term coexistence. We use pairs of congeners in this experiment that coexist at small spatial scales, sometimes within cm, at our field site. 3. We demonstrate that invader individuals established better in congener's soils than in conspecific soils, consistent with plant-soil feedback mediated coexistence. This effect was often mediated by competition with established resident plants. 4. Further, we show that soil heterogeneity interacted with the population turnover rate of the resident population to influence invasibility (P < 0.10), consistent with the theoretical prediction that a plant's population dynamics will interact with heterogeneity to influence coexistence. 5. Synthesis - Plant-soil feedbacks can in theory lead to frequency-dependent coexistence, and reciprocally negative feedback effects in greenhouse experiments are often consistent with this prediction. We provide the first field test of mutual invasibility structured by PSF, demonstrating that PSF can lead to coexistence when they create a patchy, or heterogeneous, soil environment. This work suggests that understanding the influence of PSF on diversity necessitates understanding the spatial scale at which soil heterogeneity emerges in the field. Thus high diversity might be maintained in plant communities by heterogeneity created by plants' influence on the soil, and this outcome depends strongly on population dynamics.
Three‐dimensional soil heterogeneity modulates responses of grassland mesocosms to an experimentally imposed drought extreme
<p>Heterogeneity is an intrinsic characteristic of soils, which regulates plant diversity and ecosystem functioning. However, whether soil heterogeneity also modulates responses of plant communities to climate change, including climate extremes, remains largely an open question. Here, we explore responses of plant communities to drought extremes across four levels of spatial soil heterogeneity, with cell sizes varying from very small to very large, i.e. 0, 12, 24 and 48 cm. These were created in mesocosms by alternating nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor substrate in three dimensions. A seed mixture of 24 grassland species was evenly sown on each mesocosm in spring. In late summer, a three-week drought was imposed with a rainout shelter. During the drought, soil water content at the mesocosm scale decreased more at intermediate (12 and 24 cm) than at small or large (0 and 48 cm) cell sizes, which was reflected in increased senescence and drought-induced heat stress. These responses could be traced to greater plant biomass coupled with higher water demand at those intermediate cell sizes, likely related to between-cell access to nutrients and effects of diversity and community composition. Our results indicate that soil heterogeneity can modulate the impact of drought extremes on plant communities, though more research is needed on the transition between intermediate and extreme cell sizes, where heterogeneity effects seem to change most. We propose that soil heterogeneity be considered more explicitly in studies of changing precipitation regimes.</p>
Root allocation and foraging precision in heterogeneous soils
<p>Root growth patterns respond to small-scale resource heterogeneity and the presence of roots of neighboring plants, but how a plant integrates its responses to these cues is not well understood. In the presence of neighbors, plants may shift allocation to roots as a consequence of plant size and root:shoot allometry, as a response to resource depletion by neighbors, or through a direct response to neighbor presence. The same response pathways also have the potential to alter proliferation in resource-rich patches in soil.</p> <p>Four species of grassland plants were grown in the greenhouse as single plants, monocultures, and mixtures. Root length allocation as a function of shoot mass was examined for background soil and fertilized patches. Plants grown with same-species neighbors followed the same allometric trajectory as single plants for root length in background soil, so any change in root allocation was due only to reduced plant size. Root proliferation in patches declined with neighbors, consistent with a response to resource depletion. Mixtures overproduced roots in both background soil and in patches, relative to plants of the same size in monocultures.</p>
Divergent patterns and spatial heterogeneity of soil nutrients in a complex and dynamic savanna landscape
<p>Many grassy ecosystems around the world are experiencing woody encroachment. These woody encroachers often cause nutrient enrichment in the plant-soil environment, potentially facilitating their growth and reproduction. However, studies of encroachment effects on nutrient distributions have been confined to a few major elements (<i>e.g.,</i> N, and P) and limited in spatial extent. We analyzed 19 elements in dominant plants and in georeferenced soils across a subtropical savanna landscape experiencing woody encroachment to quantify their spatial patterns and elucidate drivers responsible for these patterns. We found divergent patterns of spatial heterogeneity of these elements in surface soils across this complex landscape. Nutrient accumulation underneath woody canopies and redistribution by woody plants occurred in a subset of elements (<i>i.e.</i>, N, P, S, Ca, Cu, and Sr). Though some of these elements are not necessarily growth-limiting, they do occur in higher concentrations in woody compared to herbaceous plants. Distributions of the other elements were closely related to spatial variation in soil pH, clay content, and slope rather than to woody encroachment. Our nuanced spatial sampling approach and analysis reveal significant variation in nutrient distributions in response to woody encroachment, and illustrate the role of landscape patterns in mediating ecosystem processes. These changes in the concentrations and distributions of key essential nutrients broaden our understanding of the biogeochemical consequences of woody encroachment, and provide new insights regarding the significance of long-term vegetation dynamics in dryland ecosystems.</p>
Data from: Biomass responses to elevated CO2, soil heterogeneity and diversity: an experimental assessment with grassland assemblages
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Data from: Birds and butterflies respond to soil-induced habitat heterogeneity in experimental plantings of tallgrass prairie species managed as agroenergy crops in Iowa, USA
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Data from: Spatial heterogeneity in soil nutrient supply modulates nutrient and biomass responses to multiple global change drivers in model grassland communities
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Three‐dimensional soil heterogeneity modulates responses of grassland mesocosms to an experimentally imposed drought extreme
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Data from: Multi-scale heterogeneity in vegetation and soil carbon in exurban residential land of southeastern Michigan, USA
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Effects of herbivore assemblage on the spatial heterogeneity of soil nitrogen in eastern Eurasian steppe
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Data from: Spatial soil heterogeneity has a greater effect on symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities and plant growth than genetic modification with Bacillus thuringiensis toxin genes
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Data from: Multiple scales of spatial heterogeneity control soil respiration responses to precipitation across a dryland rainfall gradient
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Data from: Heterogeneity in plant-soil feedbacks and resident population dynamics affect mutual invasibility
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Root allocation and foraging precision in heterogeneous soils
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Divergent patterns and spatial heterogeneity of soil nutrients in a complex and dynamic savanna landscape
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Data from: Resource heterogeneity, soil fertility, and species diversity: effects of clonal species on plant communities
Spatial heterogeneity in soil resources is widely thought to promote plant species coexistence, and this mechanism figures prominently in resource-ratio models of competition. However, most experimental studies have found that nutrient enhancements depress diversity regardless of whether nutrients are uniformly or heterogeneously applied. This mismatch between theory and empirical pattern is potentially due to an interaction between plant size and the scale of resource heterogeneity. Clonal plants that spread vegetatively via rhizomes or stolons can grow large and may integrate across resource patches, thus reducing the positive effect of small-scale resource heterogeneity on plant species richness. Many rhizomatous clonal species respond strongly to increased soil fertility, and they have been hypothesized to drive the descending arm of the hump-shaped productivity-diversity relationship in grasslands. We tested whether clonals reduce species richness in a grassland community by manipulating nutrient heterogeneity, soil fertility, and the presence of rhizomatous clonal species in a 6-year field experiment. We found strong and consistent negative effects of clonals on species richness. These effects were greatest at high fertility and when soil resources were applied at a scale at which rhizomatous clonals could integrate across resource patches. Thus, we find support for the hypothesis that plant size and resource heterogeneity interact to determine species diversity.
Data from: Plant community evenness responds to spatial plant-soil feedback heterogeneity primarily through the diversity of soil conditioning
1.Plant-soil feedback (PSF) has been identified as a key driver of local plant diversity and evenness in competitive communities. However, while it has been shown that spatial PSF heterogeneity can alter plant performance and competitive interactions, there is no proof of principle that spatial PSF heterogeneity enhances community diversity. 2.Using a grassland model system we separated two aspects of spatial heterogeneity: the number of species conditioning the soil and spatial distribution of the PSFs. 3.Our data show that PSFs promoted a higher plant evenness when the soil was conditioned by multiple species (mixed-conditioned), then when the soil was conditioned by a single species (mono-conditioned). On mono-conditioned soils, heterospecifics typically outperformed the focal species. In addition, there was a trend for increasing community evenness from uniform, via fine-grained to coarse-grained mixed-conditioned soils, but this was not significant. 4.On mixed-conditioned soils, performance of all competing species was intermediate to the best and the worst mono-conditioned soils, leading to higher community evenness. 5.Our data demonstrate that PSFs play a role in promoting plant evenness. Across mono-conditioned soils, PSF led to altered competitive hierarchies. However, on soils conditioned by multiple species, competitive ability among species was more similar and this led to higher plant evenness. The spatial distribution of the heterogeneity, on the other hand, did not significantly affect plant evenness. Our data therefore show that community evenness was more strongly related to the number of plant species that conditioned the soil than the spatial distribution of the PSF heterogeneity. Future studies need to investigate the importance of PSFs in the field across plant life-stages and multiple generations.
Assessing methods for representing soil heterogeneity through a flexible approach within the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) at version 3.4.1
<p>This is the JULES input and output data and plotting scripts used in the paper titled "Assessing methods for representing soil heterogeneity through a flexible approach within the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) at version 3.4.1.</p> <p>The tar file contains the following:</p> <p>outputs/cardwfdei_gl4_uncompressed.mon.nc<br> outputs/cardwfdei_gl4_surf_ft_dom_soil.mon.nc<br> outputs/cardwfdei_gl4_gb_dom_soil_decompr_loam.mon.nc<br> outputs/cardwfdei_gl4_surf-soil_consolidated.mon.nc<br> outputs/cardwfdei_gl4_gb_dom_soil_compr_loam.mon.nc<br> plotting_scripts/utils.py<br> plotting_scripts/gb_flux_summary.py<br> plotting_scripts/tile_fsmc_summary.py<br> plotting_scripts/gb_smcl_closure_summary.py<br> plotting_scripts/colors_names.py<br> inputs/drive-file-WFDEI-79-10.txt<br> inputs/WFDEI_data/README.txt<br> inputs/extract_cardwfdei_point.py</p> <p>uncompressed is the output for experiment HResTex.<br> surf_ft_dom_soil is the output for experiment SurfDom.<br> gb_dom_soil_decompr_loam is the output for experiment SurfGB.<br> surf-soil_consolidated is the output for experiment HResTexAgg.<br> gb_dom_soil_compr_loam is the output for experiment DC.</p> <p>Descriptions about the individual plotting scripts are given within each file.</p> <p>The WFDEI data is freely available from a separate source and inputs/WFDEI_data/README.txt describes how to obtain this dataset.</p> <p>inputs/extract_cardwfdei_point.py extracts the WFDEI data for the single latitude/longitude point used in this paper.</p> <p>inputs/drive-file-WFDEI-79-10.txt is the input file required by JULES to read in the WFDEI driving data files.</p>
Data from: Grazing and nitrogen addition restructure the spatial heterogeneity of soil microbial community structure and enzymatic activities
<p>1. In grassland ecosystems, large herbivorous animal grazing activity and increasing nitrogen deposition strongly alters microbial community structure and function. Understanding the effects of grazing and nitrogen addition on the spatial heterogeneity in soil microbial community structure, enzymatic activities and the underlying mechanisms are crucial for making better predictions of soil organic matter dynamics and nutrient cycling. </p> <p>2. We examined the spatial heterogeneity of soil microbial community structure and enzymatic activity associated with changes in soil microclimate, soil characteristics, plant biomass and soil nutrient responses to grazing and nitrogen addition using a manipulative experiment with control (CK), grazing (G), nitrogen addition (N) and grazing plus nitrogen addition (NG) treatments in a <i>Leymus chinensis </i>meadow steppe, in northeastern China. </p> <p>3. The results demonstrated that soil microbial community structure and enzymatic activities showed a high level of spatial dependence [C/(C + C0)≥0.9] in the CK plot. G, N and NG treatments not only reduced the spatial variability ofsoil microbial community structure and enzymatic activities, but also reshaped the spatial links between enzymes activities and microbial community structure. Litter biomass, soil temperature and soil nutrients (soil dissolved inorganic nitrogen or soil dissolved organic carbon) explained 21-27% of the spatial variability of soil microbial community structure in the CK treatment and pH was the strongest driver for the spatial variability of soil enzymatic activities. Meanwhile, the homogenization in soil water content induced by the N addition treatment was a determinant of the reduction in spatial heterogeneity of the microbial community structure. The combination of soil physicochemical properties (bulk density, soil pH and soil dissolved inorganic nitrogen), soil temperature and root biomass explained 32-43% of the spatial variability of the microbial community structure in the G treatment, and N and G treatments had additive effects on the spatial heterogeneity of total PLFAs by homogenizing root biomass. Plant biomass and microbial community structure were the major drivers for the spatial heterogeneity of enzymatic activities under G, N and NG. In NG, the change in spatial variability of enzymatic activities was dominated by N addition. Regardless of grazing, N addition facilitated the spatial correlation between microbial community structure and enzyme activities. </p> <p>4. Overall, our results revealed the drivers of soil microbial community structure and enzymatic activities spatial pattern shift due to grazing and N addition, highlighting the role that spatial variability in soil microbial community structure and enzymatic activities has on the <i>L. chinensis</i> meadow steppe.</p>
Data from: Plant community evenness responds to spatial plant-soil feedback heterogeneity primarily through the diversity of soil conditioning
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