Effects of plant functional diversity induced by grazing and soil properties on above- and belowground biomass in a semiarid grassland

Zuo, Xiaoan; Zhang, Jing; Lv, Peng; Wang, Shaokun; Yang, Yang; Yue, Xiyuan; Zhou, Xin; Chen, Min; Lian, Jing; Qü, Hao; Liu, Lianxu; Ma, Xiaoshuang

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.05.032

Cited by 61 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Complementarity is the way in which different species interact including resource use, how they benefit other species, and their biotic feedbacks, resulting in complementary effects (CE) [26]. Species diversity accounts for a large part of the CE, which is how plants interact with each other for resources, leading to plants finding unique niches to exploit including deeper root depth and more diverse plant cover, helping to create more resilient communities with high productivity [26,27]. Trying to model each of these effects for each species within a grassland would create an unwieldly model, but FGsare a means of capturing how species compete and collaborate within an environment without adding to model complexity.…”

Section: Functional Groups and The Complementary Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Use of functional traits in modeling may be able to account for interspecies interactions, especially if FGs are able to include both above and belowground traits as part of their grouping (specifically how group traits are selected and how these are scaled to community level effects, [15]) which can help model CE [27], and CS. They can also be used to account for both invasive and native species (each might be grouped separately) and FGs can also be used to check how well a grassland will resist invasion [28].…”

Section: Functional Groups and The Complementary Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Using Plant Functional Groups as a Strategy for Modeling Carbon Dynamics in Grassland Ecosystems

Deirdre¹,

Bailey²,

Yi-Wen³

2019

Adv Environ Stud

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This paper argues for the use of plant functional groups as an important strategy for modeling carbon dynamics in grasslands. Carbon sequestration is paramount to help reduce climate change globally, and grasslands, representing 40% of all terrestrial area, can serve as primary locations of sequestration if optimal management strategies can be realized. Currently, the majority of research occurs in the field, which can take years to find what an optimal carbon sequestration strategy looks like, but modeling ecosystems offers an opportunity of realize long term management strategies for a particular locations. Current ecosystem modeling strategies tend to focus on agricultural applications or are model grassland for large regions, like Europe, or globally. Models tend to use just a few species, or only C3/C4 groups, as opposed to using C3 and C4 grasses as separate groups as well as forbs and legumes in their model. This paper lays out a justification for using the four groups in modeling in order to optimize simulation models while accounting for the importance of diversity in modeling strategies.

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Section: Functional Groups and The Complementary Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Functional Groups and The Complementary Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Plant Functional Groups as a Strategy for Modeling Carbon Dynamics in Grassland Ecosystems

Deirdre¹,

Bailey²,

Yi-Wen³

2019

Adv Environ Stud

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“…The results from OLS regression and SEM analysis revealed that FD had relatively more explanatory power in predicting variation in the aboveground biomass than did TD in the restored forest ecosystem (Figure 3). Higher FD might provide lower niche overlap among the constituent species and ensure maximum utilization of the available resources which, in turn, can positively influence the aboveground biomass [28]. The dominant species and their functional traits (mass-ratio hypothesis) also increased aboveground biomass.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Disentangling the Contributions of Plant Taxonomic and Functional Diversities in Shaping Aboveground Biomass of a Restored Forest Landscape in Southern China

Hanif

Rao

et al. 2019

Plants

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Restoration is essential for supporting key ecosystem functions such as aboveground biomass production. However, the relative importance of functional versus taxonomic diversity in predicting aboveground biomass during restoration is poorly studied. Here, we used a trait-based approach to test for the importance of multiple plant diversity attributes in regulating aboveground biomass in a 30-years-old restored subtropical forest in southern China. We show that both taxonomic and functional diversities are significant and positive regulators of aboveground biomass; however, functional diversity (FD) was more important than taxonomic diversity (species richness) in controlling aboveground biomass. FD had the strongest direct effect on aboveground biomass compared with species richness, soil nutrients, and community weighted mean (CWM) traits. Our results further indicate that leaf and root morphological traits and traits related to the nutrient content in plant tissues represent the existence of a leaf and root economic spectrum, and the acquisitive resource use strategy influenced aboveground biomass. Our results suggest that both taxonomic and FD play a role in shaping aboveground biomass, but FD is more important in supporting aboveground biomass in this type of environments. These results imply that enhancing FD is important to restoring and managing degraded forest landscapes.

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“…Long-term overgrazing, which can affect the stability of the plant community by altering the growth of individual plants (Niu et al, 2015;Zuo et al, 2018), is an important cause for grassland degradation (Bai et al, 2012). Previous research has shown that transgenerational morphological plasticity induced by overgrazing heavily involves photosynthetic function in L. chinensis (Ren et al, 2017).…”

Section: Legacy Effects Of Historical Grazing On Progeny Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy effects of historical grazing alter leaf stomatal characteristics in progeny plants

Yin

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Grazing, one of the primary utilization modes of grassland, is the main cause of grassland degradation. Historical overgrazing results in dwarf phenotype and decreased photosynthesis of perennial plants. However, it remains unknown what the mechanism underlying of this legacy effect is, and the role of stomata in the resulting decreased photosynthesis also remains unclear. To address these questions, differences in stomatal density, length and width on both adaxial and abaxial epidermis were compared between overgrazing and ungrazed Leymus chinensis offspring by using rhizome buds cultivated in a greenhouse, and the correlation between photosynthetic capacity and stomatal behavior was also investigated. Our results showed that historical grazing significantly impacted phenotype, photosynthesis and stomatal traits of L. chinensis. The offspring plants taken from overgrazed parents were dwarfed compared to those taken from ungrazed parents, and the photosynthesis and stomatal conductance of plants with a grazing history decreased by 28.6% and 21.3%, respectively. In addition, stomatal density and length on adaxial and abaxial leaf surfaces were significantly increased; however, stomatal width on abaxial leaf surfaces of overgrazed L. chinensis was significantly decreased compared with ungrazed individuals. Moreover, the expression patterns of eight genes related to stomatal regulation were tested: seven were down-regulated (2–18 times) and one was up-regulated (three times). Genes, involved in ABC transporter and receptor-like serine/threonine protein kinase were down-regulated. These results suggest that legacy effects of historical grazing affect the stomatal conductance by decreasing the stomatal width in progeny plants, which thus results in lower photosynthesis. Furthermore, changes of stomatal traits and function were regulated by the inhibition of ABC transporter and serine/threonine protein kinase. These findings are helpful for future exploration of the possible mechanisms underlying the response of grassland plants to long-term overgrazing.

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Effects of plant functional diversity induced by grazing and soil properties on above- and belowground biomass in a semiarid grassland

Cited by 61 publications

References 47 publications

Using Plant Functional Groups as a Strategy for Modeling Carbon Dynamics in Grassland Ecosystems

Using Plant Functional Groups as a Strategy for Modeling Carbon Dynamics in Grassland Ecosystems

Disentangling the Contributions of Plant Taxonomic and Functional Diversities in Shaping Aboveground Biomass of a Restored Forest Landscape in Southern China

Legacy effects of historical grazing alter leaf stomatal characteristics in progeny plants

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