Intra and inter-annual climatic conditions have stronger effect than grazing intensity on root growth of permanent grasslands

Understanding how direct and indirect changes in climatic conditions, management, and species composition affect root production and root traits is of prime importance for grassland C sequestration service delivery. We studied during two years the dynamics of root mass production with ingrowth-cores and annual above- and below-ground biomass (ANPP, BNPP) of upland fertile grasslands subjected for 10 years to a gradient of herbage utilization by grazing. We observed strong seasonal root production across treatments in both a wet and a dry year but response to grazing intensity was hardly observed within growing seasons. In abandonment, spring and autumn peaks of root growth were delayed by about one month compared to cattle treatments, possibly due to later canopy green-up and lower soil temperature. BNPP was slightly lower in abandonment compared to cattle treatments only during the dry year, whereas this effect on ANPP was observed the wet year. In response to drought, the root-to-shoot biomass ratio declined in the abandonment but not in the cattle treatment, underlining higher resistance to drought of grazed grassland communities. Rotational grazing pressure and climatic conditions variability had very limited effects on root growth seasonality although drought had stronger effects on BNPP than on ANPP

Incorporating Biodiversity into Biogeochemistry Models to Improve Prediction of Ecosystem Services in Temperate Grasslands: Review and Roadmap

Multi-species grasslands are reservoirs of biodiversity and provide multiple ecosystem services, including fodder production and carbon sequestration. The provision of these services depends on the control exerted on the biogeochemistry and plant diversity of the system by the interplay of biotic and abiotic factors, e.g., grazing or mowing intensity. Biogeochemical models incorporate a mechanistic view of the functioning of grasslands and provide a sound basis for studying the underlying processes. However, in these models, the simulation of biogeochemical cycles is generally not coupled to simulation of plant species dynamics, which leads to considerable uncertainty about the quality of predictions. Ecological models, on the other hand, do account for biodiversity with approaches adopted from plant demography, but without linking the dynamics of plant species to the biogeochemical processes occurring at the community level, and this hampers the models’ capacity to assess resilience against abiotic stresses such as drought and nutrient limitation. While setting out the state-of-the-art developments of biogeochemical and ecological modelling, we explore and highlight the role of plant diversity in the regulation of the ecosystem processes underlying the ecosystems services provided by multi-species grasslands. An extensive literature and model survey was carried out with an emphasis on technically advanced models reconciling biogeochemistry and biodiversity, which are readily applicable to managed grasslands in temperate latitudes. We propose a roadmap of promising developments in modelling

Trans European decomposition index study in arable soils with different crop species diversity using 13C-labelled litter

Póster presentado en la Sessión 8 en el Joint European Stable Isotope Users group Meeting JESIUM 2022 Kuopio, Finland Online 10–14 October 2022.Mixed species systems are currently increasing in area in Europe providing opportunities for sustainable intensification of agriculture. The agroforestry systems cover about 9% of the utilized agricultural area and integrated crop livestock systems occupy a major place in the European agricultural area including perennial forage grasses and grasslands sown with varying degrees of duration. Intercropping and other mixed cash crop systems are currently less developed in the EU. The EU EJP-SOIL funded MIXROOT-C project (2021-2024) is gaining a management-oriented understanding of the effect of mixed-species root systems on carbon flow and organic matter accumulation in European agricultural soils.N

Directional trends in species composition over time can lead to a widespread overemphasis of year‐to‐year asynchrony

Questions: Compensatory dynamics are described as one of the main mechanisms that increase community stability, e.g., where decreases of some species on a year‐to‐year basis are offset by an increase in others. Deviations from perfect synchrony between species (asynchrony) have therefore been advocated as an important mechanism underlying biodiversity effects on stability. However, it is unclear to what extent existing measures of synchrony actually capture the signal of year‐to‐year species fluctuations in the presence of long‐term directional trends in both species abundance and composition (species directional trends hereafter). Such directional trends may lead to a misinterpretation of indices commonly used to reflect year‐to‐year synchrony. Methods: An approach based on three‐term local quadrat variance (T3) which assesses population variability in a three‐year moving window, was used to overcome species directional trend effects. This “detrending” approach was applied to common indices of synchrony across a worldwide collection of 77 temporal plant community datasets comprising almost 7,800 individual plots sampled for at least six years. Plots included were either maintained under constant “control” conditions over time or were subjected to different management or disturbance treatments. Results: Accounting for directional trends increased the detection of year‐to‐year synchronous patterns in all synchrony indices considered. Specifically, synchrony values increased significantly in ~40% of the datasets with the T3 detrending approach while in ~10% synchrony decreased. For the 38 studies with both control and manipulated conditions, the increase in synchrony values was stronger for longer time series, particularly following experimental manipulation. Conclusions: Species’ long‐term directional trends can affect synchrony and stability measures potentially masking the ecological mechanism causing year‐to‐year fluctuations. As such, previous studies on community stability might have overemphasised the role of compensatory dynamics in real‐world ecosystems, and particularly in manipulative conditions, when not considering the possible overriding effects of long‐term directional trends

LOTVS: a global collection of permanent vegetation plots

Analysing temporal patterns in plant communities is extremely important to quantify the extent and the consequences of ecological changes, especially considering the current biodiversity crisis. Long-term data collected through the regular sampling of permanent plots represent the most accurate resource to study ecological succession, analyse the stability of a community over time and understand the mechanisms driving vegetation change. We hereby present the LOng-Term Vegetation Sampling (LOTVS) initiative, a global collection of vegetation time-series derived from the regular monitoring of plant species in permanent plots. With 79 data sets from five continents and 7,789 vegetation time-series monitored for at least 6 years and mostly on an annual basis, LOTVS possibly represents the largest collection of temporally fine-grained vegetation time-series derived from permanent plots and made accessible to the research community. As such, it has an outstanding potential to support innovative research in the fields of vegetation science, plant ecology and temporal ecology

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Gestion des écosystèmes pâturés en situations extensives : apports de l'écologie fonctionnelle et perspectives de recherches appliquées en moyenne montagne humide

International audienc

Diet selection of dry ewes between vegetative and reproductive tillers during the grazing down of a cocksfoot sward

International audienc

Réponse de systèmes d'élevage innovants à la variabilité climatique : une expérimentation en production extensive ovin viande intégrant des préoccupations environnementales

absen