Beyond plant–soil feedbacks: mechanisms driving plant community shifts due to land‐use legacies in post‐agricultural forests

Peña, Eduardo de la; Baeten, Lander; Steel, Hanne; Viaene, Nicole; Sutter, Nancy De; Schrijver, An De; Verheyen, Kris

doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12672

Cited by 80 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…More work is needed to take into account biotic influences on understorey communities ( e.g. herbivory pressure) (Morecroft et al ; Rooney, ; Bernhardt‐Römermann et al, ; de la Peña et al, ), as well as more in‐depth analysis of individual species responses. We also did not take into account potential effects of forest size/fragmentation here, because most of our regions comprised medium‐ to large‐sized forests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant functional trait response to environmental drivers across European temperate forest understorey communities

et al. 2020

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Functional traits respond to environmental drivers, hence evaluating trait-environment relationships across spatial environmental gradients can help to understand how multiple drivers influence plant communities. Global-change drivers such as changes in atmospheric nitrogen deposition occur worldwide, but affect community trait distributions at the local scale, where resources (e.g. light availability) and conditions (e.g. soil pH) also influence plant communities.• We investigate how multiple environmental drivers affect community trait responses related to resource acquisition (plant height, specific leaf area (SLA), woodiness, and mycorrhizal status) and regeneration (seed mass, lateral spread) of European temperate deciduous forest understoreys. We sampled understorey communities and derived trait responses across spatial gradients of global-change drivers (temperature, precipitation, nitrogen deposition, and past land use), while integrating in-situ plot measurements on resources and conditions (soil type, Olsen phosphorus (P), Ellenberg soil moisture, light, litter mass, and litter quality).• Among the global-change drivers, mean annual temperature strongly influenced traits related to resource acquisition. Higher temperatures were associated with taller understoreys producing leaves with lower SLA, and a higher proportional cover of woody and obligate mycorrhizal (OM) species. Communities in plots with higher Ellenberg soil moisture content had smaller seeds and lower proportional cover of woody and OM species. Finally, plots with thicker litter layers hosted taller understoreys with larger seeds and a higher proportional cover of OM species.• Our findings suggest potential community shifts in temperate forest understoreys with global warming, and highlight the importance of local resources and conditions as well as global-change drivers for community trait variation. Hansen et al., 2001;Walther, 2010;De Frenne et al., 2011;Bernhardt-R€ omermann et al., 2015;Bjorkman et al., 2018). Important global change drivers affecting temperate plant communities include increased temperatures, changes in Plant Biology 22 (2020) 410-424

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant functional trait response to environmental drivers across European temperate forest understorey communities

et al. 2020

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“…), soil biota and plant–soil feedbacks (de la Peña et al. ), vegetation patterns and dynamics (Verheyen & Hermy ,b; De Keersmaeker et al. , ) and plant performance (Baeten et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in the nature of environmental limitation in two forest herbs during two decades of forest succession

Baeten

Verheyen

2017

J Vegetation Science

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Aims: The environmental legacies of past land use generally have an important impact on the establishment and persistence of forest understorey plant species in post-agricultural forests. Here we studied how the nature of such environmental limitation changes during the first decades of forest development. Location: Deciduous forest 'Muizenbos', northern Belgium. Methods: Two forest herbs with comparable life-history traits, but contrasting rates of post-agricultural forest colonization (Primula elatior, Geum urbanum) were introduced 18 yr ago. Introduction sites were ancient or post-agricultural forest; seeds or adults were added to permanent plots where the understorey vegetation was initially cleared or left undisturbed. We measured chemical soil conditions and recorded the understorey plant community to characterize the sites. The effects of the treatments (land use, vegetation clearing) were tested on the present-day occurrence and abundance of the introduced species across the plots. We also quantified whether the temporal changes in the total number of individuals per site was different between the two land-use types and consistent within land-use types. Results: Land use had an important effect on soil and vegetation. In post-agricultural forest, the P availabilities weremany times higher, the plant community diversity was lower and the competitive species were significantly more abundant compared with ancient forest. The present-day abundance of P. elatior was significantly higher in the ancient forest sites, both for planted and seeded plots, while for G. urbanum land use had no effect. The initial vegetation clearing had a persistent effect on the establishment success of both species. The 18-yr-long time series showed consistent changes in the total population sizes in ancient forest: P. elatior has been expanding and G. urbanum initially increased and then declined over the past decade. In post-agricultural forest, temporal patterns were more divergent and partly related to differences in dominant tree species: differences in acidification rates and changes in insolation caused by canopy dieback have put the populations on new and unforeseen trajectories. Conclusions: The longer the experiment is running, the more the individual sites show separate dynamics. In general, we showed that environmental limitation affects plant colonization at least during the first two decades of secondary forest succession, but also that as the post-agricultural forests develop, the nature of environmental limitation changes

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“…We do not include abiotic PSFs, as these are subject of another contribution in the present volume (de la Peña et al . ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Where, when and how plant–soil feedback matters in a changing world

et al. 2016

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Summary 1.It is increasingly acknowledged that plant-soil feedbacks may play an important role in driving the composition of plant communities and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. However, the mechanistic understanding of plant-soil feedbacks, as well as their roles in natural ecosystems in proportion to other possible drivers, is still in its infancy. Such knowledge will enhance our capacity to determine the contribution of plant-soil feedback to community and ecosystem responses under global environmental change. 2. Here, we review how plant-soil feedbacks may develop under extreme drought and precipitation events, CO 2 and nitrogen enrichment, temperature increase, land use change and plant species loss vs. gain. We present a framework for opening the 'black box of soil' considering the responses of the various biotic components (enemies, symbionts and decomposers) of plant-soil feedback to the global environmental changes, and we discuss how to integrate these components to understand and predict the net effects of plant-soil feedbacks under the various scenarios of change. 3. To gain an understanding of how plant-soil feedback plays out in realistic settings, we also use the framework to discuss its interaction with other drivers of plant community composition, including competition, facilitation, herbivory, and soil physical and chemical properties. 4. We conclude that understanding the role that plant-soil feedback plays in shaping the responses of plant community composition and ecosystem processes to global environmental changes requires unravelling the individual contributions of enemies, symbionts and decomposers. These biotic factors may show different response rates and strengths, thereby resulting in different net magnitudes and directions of plant-soil feedbacks under various scenarios of global change. We also need tests of plant-soil feedback under more realistic conditions to determine its contribution to changes in patterns and processes in the field, both at ecologically and evolutionary relevant time-scales.

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Beyond plant–soil feedbacks: mechanisms driving plant community shifts due to land‐use legacies in post‐agricultural forests

Cited by 80 publications

References 75 publications

Plant functional trait response to environmental drivers across European temperate forest understorey communities

Plant functional trait response to environmental drivers across European temperate forest understorey communities

Changes in the nature of environmental limitation in two forest herbs during two decades of forest succession

Where, when and how plant–soil feedback matters in a changing world

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