Effects of plant functional traits on soil stability: intraspecific variability matters

Abstract

Background and Aims: Soil stability is a key ecosystem function provided by agricultural landscapes. A multitude of influential factors such as soil texture and plant community structure have been suggested, but few studies compare the relative importance of these factors for soil stability in the field. In addition, studies on effects of plant traits on soil stability have ignored intraspecific trait variability (ITV) despite growing evidence of its importance for ecosystem functioning. Methods: Using path model analysis, we quantified the effect of plant functional traits (PFTs), abiotic soil characteristics (soil texture) and vegetation characteristics on three soil stability measures in 30 field margins of an agriculture landscape of Korea, comparing models with and without ITV. Results: Variance in soil stability was explained to varying degrees (from 81% for soil aggregate stability to 35% for soil shear vane strength). The three soil stability measures were mainly affected directly by root density, while PFTs and soil texture exerted indirect effects through root density and vegetation parameters, respectively. Including ITV improved model explained variance and goodness-of-fit in all cases. Conclusion: The current study demonstrates that considering ITV is essential for uncovering the substantial effect of plant functional community composition on a key ecosystem function, soil stability.

Thermography as a Tool to Assess Inter-Cultivar Variability in Garlic Performance along Variations of Soil Water Availability

“…The categorical factor cultivar was also significant and improved the goodness of fit and the variance explained (see AIC and R2adj of model 2 in comparison with model 1, Table 4). These results confirm the existence of significant inter-cultivar variability in garlic and agrees with the idea that the inclusion of genotypic variability in crop modeling improves the prediction of the crop response to environmental conditions [61][62][63]. The interaction between cultivar and each of the Cp were further tested in more complex models (models 3 to 5).…”

Key ecological research questions for Central European forests

“…importance of habitat continuity (Ohlson, Söderström, Hörnberg, Zackrisson & Hermansson, 1997;Nordén, Dahlberg, Brandrud, Fritz, Ejrnaes et al, 2014;Janssen, Fuhr, Cateau, Nusillard, & Bouget, 2017) and connectivity (Fahrig, 2013;Seibold, Bässler, Brandl, Fahrig, Förster et al, 2017) remain only partly understood. Moreover, recent studies have stressed the importance of intraspecific trait variability at different trophic levels for the adaptive ability of species to environmental change as well as for their effects on ecosystem processes (Ali, Reineking & Münkemüller, 2017;De Bello, Lavorel, Albert, Thuiller, Grigulis et al, 2011;Hulshof, Violle, Spasojevic, McGill, Damschen et al, 2013;Lepš, de Bello, Šmilauer & Doležal, 2011). For instance our understanding of how inter-individual genetic and physiological variation of trees impact the assemblage of associated organisms is still far from being complete (Gossner, Simons, Achtziger, Blick, Dorow, 2015;Hughes, Inouye, Johnson, Underwood & Vellend, 2008;Whitham, Gehring, Lamit, Wojtowicz, Evans, et al, 2012) (Q 24).…”

Trait-based approach for agroecology: contribution of service crop root traits to explain soil aggregate stability in vineyards

“…Such approaches may help understand the functioning and dynamics of plant communities under various environments, and predict how ecosystem services vary across agroecosystems (Duarte et al, 1995;Martin and Isaac, 2015;Wood et al, 2015;Damour et al, 2018). The effect of root traits on soil aggregate stability has already been shown in grasslands and natural plant communities, along with environmental gradients, with findings of positive effects of root density and specific root length (SRL) on aggregate stability (Erktan et al, 2016;Gould et al, 2016;Ali et al, 2017;Le Bissonnais et al, 2017). However, to our knowledge, the respective roles of roots and soil properties have been barely studied in agroecosystems with low organic inputs.…”