Herbivory and nutrients shape grassland soil seed banks

Anthropogenic nutrient enrichment and shifts in herbivory can lead to dramatic changes in the composition and diversity of aboveground plant communities. In turn, this can alter seed banks in the soil, which are cryptic reservoirs of plant diversity. Here, we use data from seven Nutrient Network grassland sites on four continents, encompassing a range of climatic and environmental conditions, to test the joint effects of fertilization and aboveground mammalian herbivory on seed banks and on the similarity between aboveground plant communities and seed banks. We find that fertilization decreases plant species richness and diversity in seed banks, and homogenizes composition between aboveground and seed bank communities. Fertilization increases seed bank abundance especially in the presence of herbivores, while this effect is smaller in the absence of herbivores. Our findings highlight that nutrient enrichment can weaken a diversity maintaining mechanism in grasslands, and that herbivory needs to be considered when assessing nutrient enrichment effects on seed bank abundance.EEA Santa CruzFil: Eskelinen, Anu. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; AlemaniaFil: Eskelinen, Anu. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department of Physiological Diversity; AlemaniaFil: Eskelinen, Anu. University of Oulu. Ecology & Genetics; FinlandiaFil: Jessen, Maria Theresa. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department of Physiological Diversity; AlemaniaFil: Jessen, Maria Theresa. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; AlemaniaFil: Jessen, Maria Theresa. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ. Department of Community Ecology; AlemaniaFil: Bahamonde, Hector Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales; Argentina.Fil: Bakker, Jonathan D. University of Washington. School of Environmental and Forest Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Borer, Elizabeth T. University of Minnesota. Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior; Estados UnidosFil: Caldeira, Maria C. University of Lisbon. Forest Research Centre. Associate Laboratory TERRA. School of Agriculture; Portugal.Fil: Harpole, William Stanley. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv); AlemaniaFil: Harpole, William Stanley. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ. Department of Community Ecology; AlemaniaFil: Harpole, William Stanley. Martin Luther University. Institute of Biology; AlemaniaFil: Jia, Meiyu. University of Washington. School of Environmental and Forest Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Jia, Meiyu. East China University of Technology. School of Water Resources & Environmental Engineering; China.Fil: Jia, Meiyu. Beijing Normal University. College of Life Sciences; China.Fil: Lannes, Luciola S. São Paulo State University-UNESP. Department of Biology and Animal Sciences; Brasil.Fil: Nogueira, Carla. University of Lisbon. Forest Research Centre. Associate Laboratory TERRA. School of Agriculture; Portugal.Fil: Venterink, Harry Olde. Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Department of Biology; BélgicaFil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina.Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral; Argentina.Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina.Fil: Porath-Krause, Anita J. University of Minnesota. Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior; Estados UnidosFil: Seabloom, Eric William. University of Minnesota. Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior; Estados UnidosFil: Schroeder, Katie. University of Minnesota. Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior; Estados UnidosFil: Schroeder, Katie. University of Georgia. Odum School of Ecology; Estados UnidosFil: Tognetti, Pedro M. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina.Fil: Tognetti, Pedro M. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA); Argentina.Fil: Tognetti, Pedro M. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL; SuizaFil: Yasui, Simone-Louise E. Queensland University of Technology. School of Biological and Environmental Sciences; Australia.Fil: Virtanen, Risto. University of Oulu. Ecology & Genetics; FinlandiaFil: Sullivan, Lauren L. University of Missouri. Division of Biological Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Sullivan, Lauren L. Michigan State University. Department of Plant Biology; Estados UnidosFil: Sullivan, Lauren L. Michigan State University. W. K. Kellogg Biological Station; Estados UnidosFil: Sullivan, Lauren L. Michigan State University. Ecology, Evolution and Behavior Program; Estados Unido

An integrative environmental pollen diversity assessment and its importance for the Sustainable Development Goals

Societal Impact Statement Pollen relates to many aspects of human and environmental health, which protection and improvement are endorsed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. By highlighting these connections in the frame of current challenges in monitoring and research, we discuss the need of more integrative and multidisciplinary pollen research related to societal needs, improving health of humans and our ecosystems for a sustainable future. Summary Pollen is at once intimately part of the reproductive cycle of seed plants and simultaneously highly relevant for the environment (pollinators, vector for nutrients, or organisms), people (food safety and health), and climate (cloud condensation nuclei and climate reconstruction). We provide an interdisciplinary perspective on the many and connected roles of pollen to foster a better integration of the currently disparate fields of pollen research, which would benefit from the sharing of general knowledge, technical advancements, or data processing solutions. We propose a more interdisciplinary and holistic research approach that encompasses total environmental pollen diversity (ePD) (wind and animal and occasionally water distributed pollen) at multiple levels of diversity (genotypic, phenotypic, physiological, chemical, and functional) across space and time. This interdisciplinary approach holds the potential to contribute to pressing human issues, including addressing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, fostering social and political awareness of these tiny yet important and fascinating particles

Climate and local environment structure asynchrony and the stability of primary production in grasslands

Aim: Climate variability threatens to destabilize production in many ecosystems. Asynchronous species dynamics may buffer against such variability when a decrease in performance by some species is offset by an increase in performance of others. However, high climatic variability can eliminate species through stochastic extinctions or cause similar stress responses among species that reduce buffering. Local conditions, such as soil nutrients, can also alter production stability directly or by influencing asynchrony. We test these hypotheses using a globally distributed sampling experiment. Location: Grasslands in North America, Europe and Australia. Time period: Annual surveys over 5 year intervals occurring between 2007 and 2014. Major taxa studied: Herbaceous plants. Methods: We sampled annually the per species cover and aboveground community biomass [net primary productivity (NPP)], plus soil chemical properties, in 29 grasslands. We tested how soil conditions, combined with variability in precipitation and temperature, affect species richness, asynchrony and temporal stability of primary productivity. We used bivariate relationships and structural equation modelling to examine proximate and ultimate relationships. Results: Climate variability strongly predicted asynchrony, whereas NPP stability was more related to soil conditions. Species richness was structured by both climate variability and soils and, in turn, increased asynchrony. Variability in temperature and precipitation caused a unimodal asynchrony response, with asynchrony being lowest at low and high climate variability. Climate impacted stability indirectly, through its effect on asynchrony, with stability increasing at higher asynchrony owing to lower inter-annual variability in NPP. Soil conditions had no detectable effect on asynchrony but increased stability by increasing the mean NPP, especially when soil organic matter was high. Main conclusions: We found globally consistent evidence that climate modulates species asynchrony but that the direct effect on stability is low relative to local soil conditions. Nonetheless, our observed unimodal responses to variability in temperature and precipitation suggest asynchrony thresholds, beyond which there are detectable destabilizing impacts of climate on primary productivity.</p

Climate and local environment structure asynchrony and the stability of primary production in grasslands

Aim: Climate variability threatens to destabilize production in many ecosystems. Asynchronous species dynamics may buffer against such variability when a decrease in performance by some species is offset by an increase in performance of others. However, high climatic variability can eliminate species through stochastic extinctions or cause similar stress responses among species that reduce buffering. Local conditions, such as soil nutrients, can also alter production stability directly or by influencing asynchrony. We test these hypotheses using a globally distributed sampling experiment. Location: Grasslands in North America, Europe and Australia. Time period: Annual surveys over 5 year intervals occurring between 2007 and 2014. Major taxa studied: Herbaceous plants. Methods: We sampled annually the per species cover and aboveground community biomass [net primary productivity (NPP)], plus soil chemical properties, in 29 grasslands. We tested how soil conditions, combined with variability in precipitation and temperature, affect species richness, asynchrony and temporal stability of primary productivity. We used bivariate relationships and structural equation modelling to examine proximate and ultimate relationships. Results: Climate variability strongly predicted asynchrony, whereas NPP stability was more related to soil conditions. Species richness was structured by both climate variability and soils and, in turn, increased asynchrony. Variability in temperature and precipitation caused a unimodal asynchrony response, with asynchrony being lowest at low and high climate variability. Climate impacted stability indirectly, through its effect on asynchrony, with stability increasing at higher asynchrony owing to lower inter-annual variability in NPP. Soil conditions had no detectable effect on asynchrony but increased stability by increasing the mean NPP, especially when soil organic matter was high. Main conclusions: We found globally consistent evidence that climate modulates species asynchrony but that the direct effect on stability is low relative to local soil conditions. Nonetheless, our observed unimodal responses to variability in temperature and precipitation suggest asynchrony thresholds, beyond which there are detectable destabilizing impacts of climate on primary productivity.</p

Climate and local environment structure asynchrony and the stability of primary production in grasslands

Aim: Climate variability threatens to destabilize production in many ecosystems. Asynchronous species dynamics may buffer against such variability when a decrease in performance by some species is offset by an increase in performance of others. However, high climatic variability can eliminate species through stochastic extinctions or cause similar stress responses among species that reduce buffering. Local conditions, such as soil nutrients, can also alter production stability directly or by influencing asynchrony. We test these hypotheses using a globally distributed sampling experiment. Location: Grasslands in North America, Europe and Australia. Time period: Annual surveys over 5 year intervals occurring between 2007 and 2014. Major taxa studied: Herbaceous plants. Methods: We sampled annually the per species cover and aboveground community biomass [net primary productivity (NPP)], plus soil chemical properties, in 29 grasslands. We tested how soil conditions, combined with variability in precipitation and temperature, affect species richness, asynchrony and temporal stability of primary productivity. We used bivariate relationships and structural equation modelling to examine proximate and ultimate relationships. Results: Climate variability strongly predicted asynchrony, whereas NPP stability was more related to soil conditions. Species richness was structured by both climate variability and soils and, in turn, increased asynchrony. Variability in temperature and precipitation caused a unimodal asynchrony response, with asynchrony being lowest at low and high climate variability. Climate impacted stability indirectly, through its effect on asynchrony, with stability increasing at higher asynchrony owing to lower inter-annual variability in NPP. Soil conditions had no detectable effect on asynchrony but increased stability by increasing the mean NPP, especially when soil organic matter was high. Main conclusions: We found globally consistent evidence that climate modulates species asynchrony but that the direct effect on stability is low relative to local soil conditions. Nonetheless, our observed unimodal responses to variability in temperature and precipitation suggest asynchrony thresholds, beyond which there are detectable destabilizing impacts of climate on primary productivity