Grassland community composition drives small-scale spatial patterns in soil properties and processes

Parker, Sophie S.; Seabloom, Eric W.; Schimel, Joshua P.

doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2011.11.018

Cited by 18 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(56 reference statements)

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“…For each treatment, the semi-variance plots were fitted to one of the three common models: linear, exponential and spherical (Zuo et al 2008). RSS (the residual sums of squares) and r 2 were used to estimate how well the models fit the variogram data, where lower RSS and higher r 2 value suggest a better model fit (Parker, Seabloom & Schimel 2012). The linear model indicates that there was no patchy spatial pattern for soil available N at the studied scale (Lin et al 2010).…”

Section: A T a A N A L Y S E Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of grazing on soil nitrogen spatial heterogeneity depend on herbivore assemblage and pre‐grazing plant diversity

Liu

Song

Wang

et al. 2015

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary The spatial heterogeneity of limiting soil resources is an essential factor determining ecosystem processes and function. It has been reported that large herbivores can strongly impact the variation and spatial distribution pattern of soil nitrogen (N). However, it remains unclear how large herbivores affect soil spatial heterogeneity and whether this influence is dependent on plant community diversity. Here we examined effects of different herbivore assemblages [no grazing; cattle grazing (CG); sheep grazing (SG); and mixed grazing (MG) of cattle and sheep] on soil N spatial heterogeneity in grasslands with high and low pre‐grazing plant diversity in an eastern Eurasian steppe. We found that herbivore grazing generated and maintained spatial patterns of soil nutrients, depending on herbivore assemblage and the level of pre‐grazing plant diversity. CG increased the spatial heterogeneity of soil available N in Leymus chinensis‐dominated steppe meadows, which were independent of pre‐grazing plant diversity. However, the effects of SG and MG strongly depended on grassland plant diversity, with an increased spatial heterogeneity of soil available N in the high‐diversity grassland, but not in the low‐diversity grassland. Synthesis and applications. We concluded that in a L. chinensis‐dominated eastern Eurasian steppe, cattle ranching could be considered as an optimal grazing management protocol to improve soil spatial heterogeneity because cattle grazing (CG) consistently increased soil spatial heterogeneity in the context of both low and high plant diversity. Nevertheless, soil spatial heterogeneity could be improved by any herbivore grazing regime [CG and/or sheep grazing (SG)] when high plant diversity is maintained. These findings highlight the importance of conserving plant diversity to maintain grassland structure and ecosystem function. In grassland systems with high plant diversity, herbivore grazing and plant diversity would jointly improve soil spatial heterogeneity, thus feeding back to maintain higher plant diversity. Therefore, high plant diversity could generate a positive feedback loop of herbivore–plant–soil interactions in grazed grassland systems. Our findings indicate the importance of herbivore assemblages in maintaining spatial heterogeneity in low‐ and high‐diversity grassland systems.

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Section: A T a A N A L Y S E Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of grazing on soil nitrogen spatial heterogeneity depend on herbivore assemblage and pre‐grazing plant diversity

Liu

Song

Wang

et al. 2015

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…R s range of autocorrelation was found to increase and the pattern intensity was found to decrease along an elevation gradient (Chatterjee and Jenerette, 2011). Analysis of the correlations between spatial ranges of annual and perennial plants' covers and different soil properties drew attention to the effect of invasive annual grasses during succession (Parker et al, 2012). The explanatory variable of R s spatial patterns would be a spatial flux-controlling factor (Ishizuka et al, 2005), which e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meta-analysis of field scale spatial variability of grassland soil CO2 efflux: Interaction of biotic and abiotic drivers

Fóti

Balogh

Herbst

et al. 2016

CATENA

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Abbreviations a -autocorrelation length, c -structural semivariance, DOY -day of year, DOYn -normalized day of year, ME -NashSutcliffe model efficiency coefficient, PCA -principal component analysis, psill -partial sill, R s -soil CO 2 efflux, sdstandard deviation, SSErr -residual sum of squares, SWC -soil water content, SWCn -normalized soil water content, TOCtotal organic carbon content, T s -soil temperature, y0 -nugget variance AbstractIn this study eight temperate grassland sites were monitored for soil CO 2 efflux (R s ) and the spatial covariates soil water content (SWC) and soil temperature (T s ) at fine scale in over 77 measurement campaigns. The goals of this multisite study were to explore the correlations between environmental gradients and spatial patterns of R s , SWC and T s , which are not site-specific and to quantify the relevance of biotic and abiotic controls over spatial patterns along increasing vegetation structural complexity. These patterns in water-limited ecosystems in East-Central Europe are likely to be influenced by summer droughts caused by the changing climate.A consistent experimental setup was applied at the study sites including 75 sampling locations along 15 m circular transects. Spatial data processing was mainly based on variography. Two proxy variables were introduced to relate the site characteristics in terms of soils, water status and vegetation. Normalized SWC (SWCn) reconciled site-specific soil water regimes while normalized day of year integrated temperature and vegetation phenology.A principal component analysis revealed that the progressing closure of vegetation in combination with large R s and SWCn values, as well as low T s and R s variability support the detectability of spatial patterns found in both the abiotic and biotic variables. Our results showed that apart from SWC the pattern of soil temperature also had an effect on spatial structures. We detected that when the spatially 2 structured variability of T s was low, a strong negative correlation existed between SWCn and the spatial autocorrelation length of R s with r=0.66 (p<0.001). However, for high spatially structured variability of T s , occurring presumably at low T s in spring and autumn, the correlation did not exist and it was difficult to quantify the spatial autocorrelation of R s . Our results are indicative of a potential shift from homogeneity and dominance of biotic processes to an increased heterogeneity and abiotic regulation in drought prone ecosystems under conditions of decreasing soil moisture.

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“…, Goldstein and Suding ) and result in more homogenous soil resource distributions (Parker et al. , Dickens et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These invasive grasslands typically occur interspersed between native woody plant communities like oak woodland and coastal sage scrub. The relatively short root systems of grasses are very dense and homogenous relative to native woody species (Pinno and Wilson 2013, Ward et al 2013, Goldstein and Suding 2014 and result in more homogenous soil resource distributions (Parker et al 2012, Dickens et al 2013. Across a depth profile, annual grass plants primarily affect shallow soils, whereas native woody species affect shallow and deep soils.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial diversity is positively correlated with soil heterogeneity

Curd

Martiny

et al. 2018

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Plant and animal diversity generally increases with increasing environmental heterogeneity.Here, we test whether this relationship also holds for bacterial communities in soil. Specifically, we investigate whether invasive annual grasslands have reduced soil heterogeneity and, thereby, decreased bacterial alpha-and beta-diversity. Soils were sampled at nine sites within a 5-km stretch of Southern California, at five depths in three habitats, including non-native invasive annual grassland, native oak woodland, and native coastal sage scrub. We characterized soil heterogeneity as well as bacterial alpha-and beta-diversity by 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing. We found that invasive annual grasslands harbored less soil heterogeneity and reduced bacterial alpha-diversity relative to the two native woody habitats. Further, across all habitats and depths, bacterial alpha-and beta-diversity was positively related to soil heterogeneity. These results suggest that plant invasions associated with soil homogenization may lead to reduced microbial diversity.

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Grassland community composition drives small-scale spatial patterns in soil properties and processes

Cited by 18 publications

References 44 publications

Effects of grazing on soil nitrogen spatial heterogeneity depend on herbivore assemblage and pre‐grazing plant diversity

Effects of grazing on soil nitrogen spatial heterogeneity depend on herbivore assemblage and pre‐grazing plant diversity

Meta-analysis of field scale spatial variability of grassland soil CO2 efflux: Interaction of biotic and abiotic drivers

Bacterial diversity is positively correlated with soil heterogeneity

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