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Soil conditions drive belowground trait space in temperate agricultural grasslands

View ORCID ProfileTom Lachaise, View ORCID ProfileJoana Bergmann, View ORCID ProfileNorbert Hölzel, View ORCID ProfileValentin H. Klaus, View ORCID ProfileTill Kleinebecker, View ORCID ProfileMatthias C. Rillig, View ORCID ProfileMark van Kleunen
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.07.450881
Tom Lachaise
1Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany
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  • For correspondence: tom.lachaise@gmail.com
Joana Bergmann
2Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Altensteinstr. 6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
3Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), D-15374, Müncheberg, Germany
4Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), D-14195 Berlin, Germany
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Norbert Hölzel
5Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstr. 2, 48149 Münster
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Valentin H. Klaus
6Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, Universitätstr. 2, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
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Till Kleinebecker
7Institute of Landscape Ecology and Resources Management, University of Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, D-35392 Giessen, Germany
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Matthias C. Rillig
2Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Altensteinstr. 6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
4Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), D-14195 Berlin, Germany
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Mark van Kleunen
1Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany
8Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China
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Abstract

  1. Plant belowground organs perform essential functions, including water and nutrient uptake, anchorage, vegetative reproduction and recruitment of mutualistic soil microbiota. Determining how belowground traits jointly determine dimensions of the trait space and how these dimensions are linked to environmental conditions would further advance our understanding of plant functioning and community assembly.

  2. Here, we investigated belowground plant-trait dimensionality and its variation along 10 soil and land-use parameters in 150 temperate grasslands plots. We used eight belowground traits collected in greenhouse and common garden experiments, as well as bud-bank size and specific leaf area from databases, for a total of 313 species, to calculate community weighted means (CWMs).

  3. Using PCA, we found that about 55% of variance in CWMs was explained by two main dimensions, corresponding to a mycorrhizal ‘collaboration’ and a resource ‘conservation’ gradient. Frequently overlooked traits such as rooting depth, bud-bank size and root branching intensity were largely integrated in this bidimensional trait space. The two plant-strategy gradients were partially dependent on each other, with ‘outsourcing’ communities along the collaboration gradient being more often ‘slow’. These ‘outsourcing’ communities were also more often deep-rooting, and associated with soil parameters, such as low moisture and sand content, high topsoil pH, high C:N and low δ15N. ‘Slow’ communities had large bud-banks and were associated with low land-use intensity, high topsoil pH, and low nitrate but high ammonium concentrations in the soil. We did not find a substantial role of phosphorus-availability as an indicator along the ‘collaboration’ gradient.

  4. In conclusion, the ‘collaboration’ and ‘conservation’ gradients previously identified at the species level scale up to community level in grasslands, encompass more traits than previously described, and vary with the environment.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • joana.bergmann{at}zalf.de; rillig{at}zedat.fu-berlin.de; mark.vankleunen{at}uni-konstanz.de

  • https://www.bexis.uni-jena.de/ddm/data/Showdata/26587

  • https://www.bexis.uni-jena.de/ddm/data/Showdata/26546

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted July 09, 2021.
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Soil conditions drive belowground trait space in temperate agricultural grasslands
Tom Lachaise, Joana Bergmann, Norbert Hölzel, Valentin H. Klaus, Till Kleinebecker, Matthias C. Rillig, Mark van Kleunen
bioRxiv 2021.07.07.450881; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.07.450881
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Soil conditions drive belowground trait space in temperate agricultural grasslands
Tom Lachaise, Joana Bergmann, Norbert Hölzel, Valentin H. Klaus, Till Kleinebecker, Matthias C. Rillig, Mark van Kleunen
bioRxiv 2021.07.07.450881; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.07.450881

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