Nutrient Inputs and Hydrology Interact with Plant Functional Type in Affecting Plant Production and Nutrient Contents in a Wet Grassland

Multiple environmental factors, but not nutrient addition, directly affect wet grassland soil microbial community structure: a mesocosm study

“…Changed precipitation patterns, as a result of climate change, are expected to affect ecosystem hydrology, structure, functioning, and the presence and abundance of numerous plant species (Maestra et al 2012 ); however, we expect that C. acuta will remain a co-dominant species in Central European wet grasslands (Edwards and Čížková 2020 ). A drier and warmer future would result in nutrient-richer conditions, and changes to microbial community structure and total microbial biomass and/or abundances, with wet grasslands likely switching from areas acting as C sinks to C sources, while the opposite would be expected under wetter, more flooded conditions (Joyce et al 2016 ).…”

“…We used plants of Carex acuta , a common plant species of wet grasslands in Central Europe. Although C. acuta is considered to be a conservative, stress-tolerator species, it is co-dominant with more competitive species such as Glyceria maxima under a range of nutrient and water level conditions (Edwards and Čížková 2020 ). Carex acuta plants, consisting of multi-stemmed ramets, were collected from the field in April 2009.…”

“…The fractions were also placed into labeled paper bags, dried at 65°C for at least 48 h, and weighed. Net aboveground and belowground primary production (NAPP and NBPP, respectively) were calculated from these biomass data using the methods of Picek et al ( 2008 ) and Edwards and Čížková ( 2020 ).…”

“…The ANOVAs were run using SYSTAT v 11. NAPP and NBPP were estimated based on the harvested plant biomass in the four sampling times (Edwards 2015 , Edwards and Čížková 2020 ).…”

“…An earlier field study, which investigated the impact of nutrient addition on plant growth and production and soil properties in two wet grasslands with peat or mineral soils, noted accelerated nutrient fluxes in both wet grasslands, but especially in the one with peat soil (Picek et al 2008 , Edwards 2015 , Edwards et al 2015 ). In addition, nutrient levels interacted with site hydrology to affect plant growth and production, which likely allowed for the co-existence of common plant species belonging to different plant functional types (Edwards and Čížková 2020 ). Therefore, several environmental factors, acting both singly and interactively, affect the ecological functioning of these wet grasslands; however, the importance of these different factors could not be easily disentangled in the field.…”