Ecosystem input of nitrogen through biological fixation in feather mosses during ecosystem retrogression

Lagerström, Anna; Nilsson, Madeleine; Zackrisson, Olle; Wardle, David A.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2435.2007.01331.x

Cited by 95 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…First, we estimated biomass of each of the two dominant moss species in each plot (H. splendens and P. schreberi ) using the approach of Lagerstro¨m et al (2007), which involved measuring the depth of the live moss layer of each species at each of 15 random points throughout the plot, and converting mean depth to biomass using previously established calibration equations. Furthermore, within each plot we collected approximately 30 randomly located soil cores beneath the litter layer (each 2.5 cm in diameter 3 10 cm deep; cores consisted entirely of humus) and bulked them into a single sample for abiotic and biotic measurements.…”

Section: Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐term resilience of above‐ and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems

Wardle

Jonsson

2014

Ecology

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Abstract. While several studies have explored how short-term ecological responses to disturbance vary among ecosystems, experimental studies of how contrasting ecosystems recover from disturbance in the longer term are few. We performed a simple long-term experiment on each of 30 contrasting forested islands in northern Sweden that vary in size; as size decreases, time since fire increases, soil fertility and ecosystem productivity declines, and plant species diversity increases. We predicted that resilience of understory plant community properties would be greatest on the larger, more productive islands, and that this would be paralleled by greater resilience of soil biotic and abiotic properties. For each island, we applied three disturbance treatments of increasing intensity to the forest understory once in 1998, i.e., light trimming, heavy trimming, and burning; a fourth treatment was an undisturbed control. We measured recovery of the understory vascular plant community annually over the following 14 years, and at that time also assessed recovery of mosses and several belowground variables. Consistent with our predictions, vascular plant whole-community variables (total cover, species richness, diversity [Shannon's H 0 ], and community composition) recovered significantly more slowly on the smaller (least fertile) than the larger islands, but this difference was not substantial, and only noticeable in the most severely disturbed treatment. When an index of resilience was used, we were unable to detect effects of island size on the recovery of any property. We found that mosses and one shrub species (Empetrum hermaphroditum) recovered particularly slowly, and the higher abundance of this shrub on small islands was sufficient to explain any slower recovery of whole-ecosystem variables on those islands. Further, several belowground variables had not fully recovered from the most intense disturbance after 14 yr, and counter to our predictions, the degree of their recovery was never influenced by island size. While several studies have shown large variation among plant communities in their short-term response (notably resistance) to environmental perturbations, our results reveal that when perturbations are applied equally to highly contrasting ecosystems, differences in resilience among them in the longer term can be relatively minor, regardless of the severity of disturbance.

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Section: Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐term resilience of above‐ and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems

Wardle

Jonsson

2014

Ecology

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“…All Rights Reserved. [Basilier et al, 1978] TU 1.0-6.4 (4) [Crittenden, 1975] TU 0.0062-0.17 [Forman and Dowden, 1977] TU 0.022-0.18 (3) b [Granhall and Selander, 1973] TU 0.16-9.4 (2) [Gunther, 1989] TU 0.0025-0.01 (3) [Henry and Svoboda, 1986] TU 0.085-0.1 (2) [Kallio, 1975] TU 0.15-0.38 (3) [DeLuca et al, 2002] BO-F 0.17 [Gunther, 1989] BO-F 0.005-0.045 (2) [Huss-Danell, 1977] BO-F 0.1 [Lagerström et al, 2007] BO-F 0.05-0.2 (3) [Zackrisson et al, 2004] BO-F 0.025-0.15 (3) b [Zackrisson et al, 2009] BO-F 0.16 [Antoine, 2004] TE-C 0.15-1.65 (5) [Brown and Dalton, 2002] TE-C 0.2 [Denison, 1973] TE-C 0.59 b [Denison, 1979] TE-C 0.4 [Granhall and Lindberg, 1978] TE-C 0.035 [Green et al, 1980] TE-C 0.5 b [Pike, 1978] TE-C 0.45 [Sucoff, 1979] TE-C 0.006-0.24 (4) [Belnap, 2002] [Zhao et al, 2010] DE 0.4 [Crews et al, 2001] TR-F 0.1-0.2 (3) [Cusack et al, 2009] TR-F 0.38 TR-F 0.02-0.045 (3) [Matzek and Vitousek, 2003] TR-F 0.008-0.06 (6) [Forman, 1975] TR-C 0.48 [Freiberg, 1998] TR-C 0.35 b [Matzek and Vitousek, 2003] TR-C 0.004-0.04 (6) a Biomes are abbreviated as follows: TU = tundra, BO-F = boreal forest floor, TE-C = temperate evergreen canopy, DE = desert, TR-F = tropical rainforest floor, and TR-C = tropical rainforest canopy. Some studies provide more than one observed value (e.g., due to different habitats).…”

Section: Chemical Weatheringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating impacts of lichens and bryophytes on global biogeochemical cycles

Porada

Weber

Elbert

et al. 2014

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

121

107

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Lichens and bryophytes may significantly affect global biogeochemical cycles by fixation of nitrogen and biotic enhancement of surface weathering rates. Most of the studies suggesting these effects, however, are either conceptual or rely on upscaling of regional estimates to obtain global numbers. Here we use a different method, based on estimates of net carbon uptake, to quantify the impacts of lichens and bryophytes on biogeochemical cycles at the global scale. We focus on three processes, namely, nitrogen fixation, phosphorus uptake, and chemical weathering. Our estimates have the form of potential rates, which means that we quantify the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus needed by the organisms to build up biomass, also accounting for resorption and leaching of nutrients. Subsequently, we use potential phosphorus uptake on bare ground to estimate chemical weathering by the organisms, assuming that they release weathering agents to obtain phosphorus. The predicted requirement for nitrogen ranges from 3.5 to 34 Tg yr −1 and for phosphorus it ranges from 0.46 to 4.6 Tg yr −1 . Estimates of chemical weathering are between 0.058 and 1.1 km 3 yr −1 of rock. These values seem to have a realistic order of magnitude, and they support the notion that lichens and bryophytes have the potential to play an important role for biogeochemical cycles.

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“…For the species removal experiment, we predicted that competition for N would be stronger when resource availability is high, as proposed by some theories (Grime 1973(Grime , 1979 and suggested by previous work within this study system (Wardle and Zackrisson 2005, Wardle et al 2008, Gundale et al 2011b. For the functional group removal experiment, we predicted that removal effects on the three shrubs would be stronger on small islands because previous work from the study system has shown that both feather mosses and tree roots have a larger influence on ecosystem processes in low-fertility than in high-fertility environments (Lagerstro¨m et al 2007, Gundale et al 2010. Collectively, testing these hypotheses will provide insights into how N acquisition by species is influenced by their interactions with other community members, and how these interactions change as a function of resource availability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Nitrogen niches revealed through species and functional group removal in a boreal shrub community

Gundale

Hyodo

Nilsson

et al. 2012

Ecology

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Abstract. Most theories attempting to explain the coexistence of species in local communities make fundamental assumptions regarding whether neighbors exhibit competitive, neutral, or positive resource-use interactions; however, few long-term data from naturally assembled plant communities exist to test these assumptions. We utilized a 13-year experiment consisting of factorial removal of three shrub species (Vaccinium myrtillus, V. vitis-idaea, and Empetrum hermaphroditum) and factorial removal of two functional groups (tree roots and feather mosses) to assess how neighbors affect N acquisition and growth of each of the three shrub species. The removal plots were established on each of 30 lake islands in northern Sweden that form a natural gradient of resource availability. We tested the hypotheses that: (1) the presence of functionally similar neighbors would reduce shrub N acquisition through competition for a shared N resource; (2) the removal of functional groups would affect shrub N acquisition by altering the breadth of their niches; and (3) soil fertility would influence the effects of neighbor removals. We found that the removal of functionally similar neighbors (i.e., other shrub species) usually resulted in higher biomass and biomass N, with the strength of these effects varying strongly with site fertility. Shrub species removals never resulted in altered stable N isotope ratios (d 15 N), suggesting that the niche breadth of the three shrubs was unaffected by the presence of neighboring shrub species. In the functional group removal experiment, we found positive effects of feather moss removal on V. myrtillus biomass and biomass N, and negative effects on E. hermaphrotium N concentration and V. vitis-idaea biomass and biomass N. Tree root removal also caused a significant shift in foliar d Collectively, these results show that the resource acquisition and niche breadth of the three shrub species are often affected by neighbors, and further that both the identity of neighbors and site fertility strongly determine whether these interactions are positive, negative, or neutral. These findings have implications for understanding species coexistence and the reciprocal relationships between productivity and species diversity in this ecosystem.

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Ecosystem input of nitrogen through biological fixation in feather mosses during ecosystem retrogression

Cited by 95 publications

References 45 publications

Long‐term resilience of above‐ and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems

Long‐term resilience of above‐ and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems

Estimating impacts of lichens and bryophytes on global biogeochemical cycles

Nitrogen niches revealed through species and functional group removal in a boreal shrub community

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