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Shrub survey:Effects of Long Term Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes

In 1996 E142 was established in field D on top of the E004 macroplots. E004 was conducted in fields A, B, C and D by Dave Tilman. The purpose of E004 was to see what effect NH4NO3 addition has on large areas over a longer period of time with exposure to naturally-occurring levels of herbivory. The nutrient addition treatments in E004, E142 plots have been applied annually since 1982. These experiments, along with others at Cedar Creek, examine the community and ecosystem consequences of chronic nutrient loading.

Plant aboveground biomass:Effects of Long Term Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes

Plant belowground biomass:Effects of Long Term Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes

Plant aboveground biomass carbon and nitrogen:Effects of Long Term Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes

Plant belowground biomass carbon and nitrogen:Effects of Long Term Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes

Effects of Long Term Canopy litter biomass carbon and nitrogen:Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes

Soil carbon flux:Effects of Long Term Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Quantifying species contributions to ecosystem processes: a global assessment of functional trait and phylogenetic metrics across avian seed-dispersal networks

Quantifying the role of biodiversity in ecosystems not only requires understanding the links between species and the ecological functions and services they provide, but also how these factors relate to measurable indices, such as functional traits and phylogenetic diversity. However, these relationships remain poorly understood, especially for heterotrophic organisms within complex ecological networks. Here, we assemble data on avian traits across a global sample of mutualistic plant–frugivore networks to critically assess how the functional roles of frugivores are associated with their intrinsic traits, as well as their evolutionary and functional distinctiveness. We find strong evidence for niche complementarity, with phenotypically and phylogenetically distinct birds interacting with more unique sets of plants. However, interaction strengths—the number of plant species dependent on a frugivore—were unrelated to evolutionary or functional distinctiveness, largely because distinct frugivores tend to be locally rare, and thus have fewer connections across the network. Instead, interaction strengths were better predicted by intrinsic traits, including body size, gape width and dietary specialization. Our analysis provides general support for the use of traits in quantifying species ecological functions, but also highlights the need to go beyond simple metrics of functional or phylogenetic diversity to consider the multiple pathways through which traits may determine ecological processes.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Subordinate plants mitigate drought effects on soil ecosystem processes by stimulating fungi

The subordinate insurance hypothesis suggests that highly diverse communities contain greater numbers of subordinate species than less diverse communities. It has previously been reported that subordinate species can improve grassland productivity during drought, but the underlying mechanisms remain undetermined. Using a combination of subordinate species removal and summer drought, we show that soil processes play a critical role in community resistance to drought. Interestingly, subordinate species drive soil microbial community structure and largely mitigate the effect of drought on grassland soil functioning. Our results highlight subordinate species in shifting the balance within the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) microbial community towards more fungal dominance. Fungal communities promoted by subordinate species were more resistant to drought and maintained higher rates of litter decomposition and soil respiration. These results emphasize the important role of subordinate species in mitigating drought effects on soil ecosystem functions. Reciprocal effects between fungi and subordinate species explain also how subordinate species better resisted to drought conditions. Our results point to a delayed plant–soil feedback following environmental perturbation. Additionally, they extend the diversity insurance hypothesis by showing that more diverse communities not only contain species well adapted to perturbations, but also species with higher impacts on soil microbial communities and related ecosystem functions.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: Heterogeneity of ecological patterns, processes and funding of marine manipulative field experiments conducted in Southeastern Pacific coastal ecosystems

Ecological manipulative experiments conducted in marine coastal ecosystems have substantially improved ecological theory during the last decades, and have provided useful knowledge for the management and conservation of coastal ecosystems. Although different studies report global trends in ecological patterns worldwide, Southeastern Pacific coastal ecosystems have been poorly considered. Given that the SE Pacific coast encompasses diverse coastal ecosystems, consideration of studies conducted along this range can shed light on the heterogeneity of processes regulating coastal communities. We reviewed the biotic interactions and habitat type considered, as well as the complexity in terms of spatial and temporal extent of manipulative field experimental studies conducted along the SE Pacific coast from 0°S to 56° S (Ecuador to Chile). We test the effect of funding reported by different studies as a main factor limiting experimental complexity. From field ecological studies published from 1970 to 2016, we found that 81 studies were truly manipulative, in which one or multiple factors were "manipulated". Around 77% of these studies were located between 21°S to 40°S, and conducted in intertidal rocky habitats. An increase in experimental studies was observed between 2010 and 2015, especially focused on herbivore-alga interactions, although we found that both the temporal and spatial extent of these studies have shown a decrease in recent decades. Funding grant amount reported had a positive effect on elapsed time of field experiments, but no effect was observed on spatial extent or in the biotic interactions considered. Elapsed time of experiments was different among the main biotic interactions considered i.e. herbivory, predation, and competition. We suggest that to further progress in applied ecological knowledge, it will be necessary to consider pollution and urbanization processes explicitly using a field experimental framework. This information could improve our understanding of how ecosystems present along the SE Pacific coast respond to climate change and increased levels of human interventions.

opencc-zeroMay 2019View details →

Data from: A synthesis of ecosystem aboveground productivity and its process variables under simulated drought stress

1. Projected increases in drought duration and intensity under climate change considerably affect aboveground productivity (ANPP) and associated process variables (photosynthesis rates (Pn), stomatal conductance (gs), soil respiration (Rs), and soil water content (SWC)). 2. Although ANPP has been extensively studied across the ecosystems, there is little consensus on how the spatiotemporal patterns of ANPP will be altered with increasing drought stress. Here, we present a global meta-analysis of ANPP and the four variables (610 observations from 78 studies) for drought duration, intensity, and their combination. 3. Forest-ANPP had stronger negative responses to long-term drought (34.44%; ≥ 4 yrs) than short-term drought (10.78%; ≤ 1 yr), and decreased more in Mediterranean forests than in tropical forests. Decreases in Pn and gs were strongest under long-term moderate drought. In the short term, Rs increased by 5.66% under light drought, but decreased by 14.12% and 28.43% under moderate and severe droughts. Grass-ANPP showed a nonlinear decrease with extended duration, and the rate slowed. Within light to severe intensities, ANPP decreased linearly, but became stable under extreme condition. In the short term, ANPP reduced more seriously with increasing drought intensity (12.01-30.34%). With aggravation of drought stress, the reductions in Rs and SWC increased. There was significant heterogeneity in grassland responses to drought stress. The greatest decreases in ANPP, Pn, and gs were observed in North America, and the reductions in Rs and SWC were greater in Western Europe. Shrub-ANPP showed stronger negative responses to long-term moderate drought (12.59%). Pn and gs declined significantly with increasing drought intensity. Variations in Rs to drought duration, intensity, and their combination were more complex, either showing positive or negative responses (dominated). 4. Synthesis. Forest-ANPP shows high sensitivity to long-term moderate drought, whereas grass-ANPP is more responsive to short-term drought. Compared to forests and grasslands, shrub-ANPP exhibits less sensitivity to droughts. Different responses of ecosystems were predominantly driven by physiological mechanisms or species differences in turnover time, community architecture, and drought adaptation strategies. Given these findings, future studies should focus on nonlinear patterns, response thresholds, and adaptation mechanisms when predicting and modelling feedback between ecosystems and climate change.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Linking functional diversity and ecosystem processes: a framework for using functional diversity metrics to predict the ecosystem impact of functionally unique species

1.Functional diversity (FD) metrics are widely used to assess invasion ecosystem impacts, but we have limited theory to predict how FD should respond to invasion. A key challenge to effectively using FD metrics is the complexity of conceptualizing alterations to multi-dimensional trait space, making it difficult to select a priori the most appropriate metric for specific ecological questions. 2.Here, we provide expectations on how invasion should change four commonly used FD metrics—functional richness (FRic), evenness (FEve), divergence (FDiv), and dispersion (FDis)—and then test these expectations in a lab decomposition experiment. We simulate invasion of a forest by understory plants by adding leaf litter from 18 natives and nonnatives to a representative canopy tree litter mixture to test changes in FD and decomposition. 3.All four metrics changed predictably with invasion. Species that were more functionally unique or when added at greater proportions had larger impacts on FD. Overall, FRic, FEve, and FDiv were poor choices for understanding impacts of nonnative species. FDis was the only metric that both changed predictably with addition of understory litter and correlated intuitively with changes in carbon mineralization. Furthermore, ranking species based upon how much they changed FDis of the litter mixture provided a fair assessment of which species had the largest impact on decomposition. As such, functional dispersion may be a key tool for predicting a priori which nonnatives will have the greatest impact on ecosystem processes. 4.Synthesis: We highlight the need to assess the suitability of each FD metric for the specific ecological question at hand. Our work reveals the pitfalls of considering multiple metrics or randomly choosing a single metric without suitability assessments. At the same time, it suggests a framework for metric assessment that should help lead to selection of a metric or metrics that provide robust a priori insights into how invasion by nonnative species can impact ecosystem processes.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2024View details →

Global patterns and drivers of coupling between anammox and denitrification processes across inland aquatic ecosystems

Here, we reported a dataset regarding global anammox and denitrification rates from inland aquatic ecosystems.

opencc-by-4.0May 2024View details →

Ecosystem processes dataset in Luasong UNDP Project 2018

This is a dataset of  six key ecosystem processes related to the functions of nutrient cycling and plant regeneration: dung removal, predation of insect herbivores, seed removal, functional activity of soil invertebrates, bioturbation, decomposition, and multifunctionality.  The dataset accompanies the following journal article: Chiew, L. Y., Brodie, J. F., Burslem, D. F. R. P., Reynold, G., Vairappan, C. S., Slade, E. M., 2024. Invertebrate-mediated Ecosystem Processes are Resilient to Disturbance Across a Land-Use Gradient in Borneo. Ecosystems This Project was funded under United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): Biodiversity Conservation in Multiple Use Forest Landscapes and the Global Environmental Facility, and co-financed by Sabah Forestry Department, Yayasan Sabah, and WWF.

Supplementary material 2 from: Martín-Forés I, Casado MA, Castro I, del Pozo A, Molina-Montenegro MA, de Miguel JM, Acosta-Gallo B (2018) Variation in phenology and overall performance traits can help to explain the plant invasion process amongst Mediterranean ecosystems. NeoBiota 41: 67-89. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.41.29965

Supplementary material 2 from: Martín-Forés I, Casado MA, Castro I, del Pozo A, Molina-Montenegro MA, de Miguel JM, Acosta-Gallo B (2018) Variation in phenology and overall performance traits can help to explain the plant invasion process amongst Mediterranean ecosystems. NeoBiota 41: 67-89. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.41.29965

Supplementary material 4 from: Martín-Forés I, Casado MA, Castro I, del Pozo A, Molina-Montenegro MA, de Miguel JM, Acosta-Gallo B (2018) Variation in phenology and overall performance traits can help to explain the plant invasion process amongst Mediterranean ecosystems. NeoBiota 41: 67-89. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.41.29965

Supplementary material 4 from: Martín-Forés I, Casado MA, Castro I, del Pozo A, Molina-Montenegro MA, de Miguel JM, Acosta-Gallo B (2018) Variation in phenology and overall performance traits can help to explain the plant invasion process amongst Mediterranean ecosystems. NeoBiota 41: 67-89. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.41.29965

Supplementary material 3 from: Martín-Forés I, Casado MA, Castro I, del Pozo A, Molina-Montenegro MA, de Miguel JM, Acosta-Gallo B (2018) Variation in phenology and overall performance traits can help to explain the plant invasion process amongst Mediterranean ecosystems. NeoBiota 41: 67-89. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.41.29965

Supplementary material 3 from: Martín-Forés I, Casado MA, Castro I, del Pozo A, Molina-Montenegro MA, de Miguel JM, Acosta-Gallo B (2018) Variation in phenology and overall performance traits can help to explain the plant invasion process amongst Mediterranean ecosystems. NeoBiota 41: 67-89. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.41.29965

Supplementary material 1 from: Martín-Forés I, Casado MA, Castro I, del Pozo A, Molina-Montenegro MA, de Miguel JM, Acosta-Gallo B (2018) Variation in phenology and overall performance traits can help to explain the plant invasion process amongst Mediterranean ecosystems. NeoBiota 41: 67-89. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.41.29965

Figure S1 : Explanation note: Distribution of Leontodonsaxatilis, Hypochaerisglabra and Trifoliumglomeratum in both the native (Spain) and the introduced (Chile) ranges.

opencc-zeroSep 2023View details →

Simulations from four process-based ecosystem models describing primary productivity in a tallgrass prairie long-term irrigation experiment

To demonstrate current capabilities in modeling herbaceous ecosystems, we selected four different process-based models that vary in their representation of community change from no community representation to vegetation demographic models. These models were used to simulate a long-term irrigation experiment at a US tallgrass prairie (Konza Prairie Biological Station) following a standardized simulation protocol. Specifically, we were interested in how model output under a monotonic increase in water availability matched up to experimental findings of (1) herbaceous plant community change and (2) aboveground net primary productivity before and after the plant community change. The results of this simulation are included here.