Responses of tundra plant community carbon flux to experimental warming, dominant species removal and elevation

Sundqvist, Maja K.; Sanders, Nathan J.; Dorrepaal, Ellen; Lindén, Elin; Metcalfe, Daniel B.; Newman, Gregory S.; Olofsson, Johan; Wardle, David A.; Classen, Aimée T.

doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13567

Cited by 11 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…plants do not impede colonization by novel species, in contrast to findings from numerous removal experiments (39,40,56,57), including in this system (36,58,59). Similarly, overall vascular plant cover had no significant effect on extinction rates.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 76%

“…Although our results are consistent with the argument that biotic interactions are important, the specific mechanisms are not necessarily those expected. Notably, interactions from vascular plants do not impede colonization by novel species, in contrast to findings from numerous removal experiments ( 39 , 40 , 56 , 57 ), including in this system ( 36 , 58 , 59 ). Similarly, overall vascular plant cover had no significant effect on extinction rates.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 73%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Biotic rescaling reveals importance of species interactions for variation in biodiversity responses to climate change

Vandvik

Skarpaas

Klanderud

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Generality in understanding biodiversity responses to climate change has been hampered by substantial variation in the rates and even directions of response to a given change in climate. We propose that such context dependencies can be clarified by rescaling climate gradients in terms of the underlying biological processes, with biotic interactions as a particularly important process. We tested this rescaling approach in a replicated field experiment where entire montane grassland communities were transplanted in the direction of expected temperature and/or precipitation change. In line with earlier work, we found considerable variation across sites in community dynamics in response to climate change. However, these complex context dependencies could be substantially reduced or eliminated by rescaling climate drivers in terms of proxies of plant−plant interactions. Specifically, bryophytes limited colonization by new species into local communities, whereas the cover of those colonists, along with bryophytes, were the primary drivers of local extinctions. These specific interactions are relatively understudied, suggesting important directions for future work in similar systems. More generally, the success of our approach in explaining and simplifying landscape-level variation in climate change responses suggests that developing and testing proxies for relevant underlying processes could be a fruitful direction for building more general models of biodiversity response to climate change.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 76%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 73%

Biotic rescaling reveals importance of species interactions for variation in biodiversity responses to climate change

Vandvik

Skarpaas

Klanderud

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Individual organism’s physiological rates such as photosynthesis and respiration are directly regulated by climatic factors such as temperature and precipitation 9 , 10 . In turn, these impacts will aggregate to affect ecosystem-level processes such as productivity, decomposition, and carbon and nutrient fluxes in response to climate change 11 , 12 . Because biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are linked through biotic interactions within and among trophic levels and functional groups 5 , 13 , indirect impacts of climate, operating on and via these interactions, are also of critical importance.…”

Section: Background and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of plant functional groups mediating climate impacts on carbon and biodiversity of alpine grasslands

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Plant removal experiments allow assessment of the role of biotic interactions among species or functional groups in community assembly and ecosystem functioning. When replicated along climate gradients, they can assess changes in interactions among species or functional groups with climate. Across twelve sites in the Vestland Climate Grid (VCG) spanning 4 °C in growing season temperature and 2000 mm in mean annual precipitation across boreal and alpine regions of Western Norway, we conducted a fully factorial plant functional group removal experiment (graminoids, forbs, bryophytes). Over six years, we recorded biomass removed, soil microclimate, plant community composition and structure, seedling recruitment, ecosystem carbon fluxes, and reflectance in 384 experimental and control plots. The dataset consists of 5,412 biomass records, 360 species-level biomass records, 1,084,970 soil temperature records, 4,771 soil moisture records, 17,181 plant records covering 206 taxa, 16,656 seedling records, 3,696 ecosystem carbon flux measurements, and 1,244 reflectance measurements. The data can be combined with longer-term climate data and plant population, community, ecosystem, and functional trait data collected within the VCG.

show abstract

“…However, much like the effects of warming, there is also a high degree of uncertainty surrounding the effects that changes in plant community composition have on the soil microbial community, especially in topographically complex alpine ecosystems (Zak et al, 2003). Warming and dominant plant species removal may have greater impacts on the soil microbial community at higher elevations, as they are likely to be most limited by temperature and the dominant plant species may buffer the plant community from abiotic stress (Sundqvist et al, 2020). Non-dominant plant species at lower elevations are likely to exert more competitive interactions with the dominant plant species (Sundqvist et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Warming and dominant plant species removal may have greater impacts on the soil microbial community at higher elevations, as they are likely to be most limited by temperature and the dominant plant species may buffer the plant community from abiotic stress (Sundqvist et al, 2020). Non-dominant plant species at lower elevations are likely to exert more competitive interactions with the dominant plant species (Sundqvist et al, 2020). Experimental removal of plant species can provide insight into range changes and how extinctions affect ecosystem processes, but often reveals varying effects of plant removals on the soil microbial community and measures of C cycling (Peltzer et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Climate Warming and Plant Invasion on the Soil Microbial Community in Alpine Zones

Moyle

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

<p>Human activities have rapidly increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, which drives global climate warming. Alpine ecosystems, like other cold biomes, are particularly sensitive to warming. Alpine ecosystems form isolated pockets of both plant and animal diversity, creating unique biodiversity hotspots globally. Climate warming causes shifts in alpine plant community composition and facilitates the establishment of numerous invasive plant species. Most of the Earth’s biodiversity is found belowground, and while there is increasing knowledge on this large amount of biodiversity, there is still limited understanding on how it will be affected by global change drivers or the subsequent effects on ecosystem functions. Plant-mycorrhiza associations are particularly sensitive to changes in both temperature and the plant community. In Chapter 2, I investigate the effects of an invasive species (Common Heather, Calluna vulgaris) on the mycorrhiza of a native tussock grass (Red tussock, Chionochloa rubra) and the associated soil microbial community in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand. C. rubra and C. vulgaris have a mycorrhizal mismatch, associating with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and ericoid mycorrhizal fungi (ErM), respectively. Fifteen sites were established in locations that varied in C. vulgaris density. At each site, five circular plots were established. Each plot was 2 meters in diameter and centred on an individual C. rubra tussock. I recorded percent cover of vegetation in each plot and collected soil cores for the quantification of mycorrhiza in roots and soils (75 plots total). I separated C. rubra roots and soils from both cores per plot. I cleared and stained C. rubra roots and quantified AMF structures using a magnified intersection method. The biomass of the soil microbial community was assessed by fatty acid methyl ester analysis (FAME), using the phospholipid fatty acid PLFA fraction to assess microbial biomass and the proportions of different microbial groups (including ericoid mycorrhizal fungi), and neutral lipid fatty acid (NLFA) fraction to assess AMF biomass. I found that higher densities of C. vulgaris resulted in lower AM colonisation in the native C. rubra roots, reduced the diameter of C. rubra plants and reduced overall plant cover of neighbouring plant species. However, the invasion of C. vulgaris did not cause significant shifts in the general microbial groups. In Chapter 3, I investigate the effects of experimental warming and changes in plant community composition, through dominant species loss, on alpine soil microbial communities, globally. I utilize the Warming and Removal in Mountains (WaRM) network, which applies a 2 × 2 factorial warming × plant species removal experiment at both low and high elevations in 9 countries. I received soil samples from each site and used PLFA analysis to characterise the microbial response to treatments. Both warming and removal treatments had no significant effect on the overall microbial biomass. Elevation had a marginally significant effect, suggesting high elevational sites had greater microbial biomass in comparison to the low elevation sites. I found that the removal of dominant plant species in alpine regions had a significant effect on the abundance of both fungi and bacteria in opposing directions, while warming had no significant effects. Elevation had a significant effect on AMF and gram-negative bacteria, showing that incorporating and understanding elevational gradients is important when studying the alpine soil microbial community. In summary, my thesis demonstrates that changes to plant community composition, elicited by the addition or removal of dominant plant species, have significant effects on alpine soil microbial communities, which can exceed the direct effects of warming. Therefore, understanding the effects of shifting alpine plant communities, including an increase in invasive plant species, is crucial in determining the impacts of global change for alpine ecosystems.</p>

show abstract

Responses of tundra plant community carbon flux to experimental warming, dominant species removal and elevation

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 11 publications

References 48 publications

Biotic rescaling reveals importance of species interactions for variation in biodiversity responses to climate change

Biotic rescaling reveals importance of species interactions for variation in biodiversity responses to climate change

The role of plant functional groups mediating climate impacts on carbon and biodiversity of alpine grasslands

Impact of Climate Warming and Plant Invasion on the Soil Microbial Community in Alpine Zones

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About