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Title: Limited evidence for spatial resource partitioning across temperate grassland biodiversity experiments

Abstract

Locally, plant species richness supports many ecosystem functions. Yet, the mechanisms driving these often-positive biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships are not well understood. Spatial resource partitioning across vertical resource gradients is one of the main hypothesized causes for enhanced ecosystem functioning in more biodiverse grasslands. Spatial resource partitioning occurs if species differ in where they acquire resources and can happen both above- and belowground. However, studies investigating spatial resource partitioning in grasslands provide inconsistent evidence. We present the results of a meta-analysis of 21 data sets from experimental species-richness gradients in grasslands. We test the hypothesis that increasing spatial resource partitioning along vertical resource gradients enhances ecosystem functioning in diverse grassland plant communities above- and belowground. To test this hypothesis, we asked three questions. (1) Does species richness enhance biomass production or community resource uptake across sites? (2) Is there evidence of spatial resource partitioning as indicated by resource tracer uptake and biomass allocation above- and belowground? (3) Is evidence of spatial resource partitioning correlated with increased biomass production or community resource uptake? Although plant species richness enhanced community nitrogen and potassium uptake and biomass production above- and belowground, we found that plant communities did not meet our criteria for spatial resourcemore » partitioning, though they did invest in significantly more aboveground biomass in higher canopy layers in mixture relative to monoculture. Furthermore, the extent of spatial resource partitioning across studies was not positively correlated with either biomass production or community resource uptake. Our results suggest that spatial resource partitioning across vertical resource gradients alone does not offer a general explanation for enhanced ecosystem functioning in more diverse temperate grasslands.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [1];  [1];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [4];  [14];  [15];  [16] more »;  [17];  [1] « less
  1. Univ. of Leipzig (Germany); German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) (Germany)
  2. Wageningen Univ. (Netherlands)
  3. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  4. Univ. of Bayreuth (Germany)
  5. Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zurich (Switzerland)
  6. University Heyendaalseweg (The Netherlands)
  7. Friedrich Schiller Univ., Jena (Germany)
  8. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) (Germany); Friedrich Schiller Univ., Jena (Germany)
  9. University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN (United States)
  10. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (France); Montpellier Univ. 2 (France)
  11. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Germany)
  12. Univ. of Western Sydney, NSW (Australia); University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN (United States)
  13. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Germany); German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) (Germany)
  14. Univ. of Freiburg (Germany)
  15. Univ. of Zurich (Switzerland)
  16. University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN (United States); Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
  17. Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zurich (Switzerland); Univ. of Zurich (Switzerland)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1800870
Grant/Contract Number:  
FG02-96ER62291
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Ecology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 101; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0012-9658
Publisher:
Ecological Society of America (ESA)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Environmental Sciences & Ecology

Citation Formats

Barry, Kathryn E., Ruijven, Jasper, Mommer, Liesje, Bai, Yongfei, Beierkuhnlein, Carl, Buchmann, Nina, Kroon, Hans, Ebeling, Anne, Eisenhauer, Nico, Guimarães‐Steinicke, Claudia, Hildebrandt, Anke, Isbell, Forest, Milcu, Alexandru, Neßhöver, Carsten, Reich, Peter B., Roscher, Christiane, Sauheitl, Leopold, Scherer‐Lorenzen, Michael, Schmid, Bernhard, Tilman, David, Felten, Stefanie, and Weigelt, Alexandra. Limited evidence for spatial resource partitioning across temperate grassland biodiversity experiments. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1002/ecy.2905.
Barry, Kathryn E., Ruijven, Jasper, Mommer, Liesje, Bai, Yongfei, Beierkuhnlein, Carl, Buchmann, Nina, Kroon, Hans, Ebeling, Anne, Eisenhauer, Nico, Guimarães‐Steinicke, Claudia, Hildebrandt, Anke, Isbell, Forest, Milcu, Alexandru, Neßhöver, Carsten, Reich, Peter B., Roscher, Christiane, Sauheitl, Leopold, Scherer‐Lorenzen, Michael, Schmid, Bernhard, Tilman, David, Felten, Stefanie, & Weigelt, Alexandra. Limited evidence for spatial resource partitioning across temperate grassland biodiversity experiments. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2905
Barry, Kathryn E., Ruijven, Jasper, Mommer, Liesje, Bai, Yongfei, Beierkuhnlein, Carl, Buchmann, Nina, Kroon, Hans, Ebeling, Anne, Eisenhauer, Nico, Guimarães‐Steinicke, Claudia, Hildebrandt, Anke, Isbell, Forest, Milcu, Alexandru, Neßhöver, Carsten, Reich, Peter B., Roscher, Christiane, Sauheitl, Leopold, Scherer‐Lorenzen, Michael, Schmid, Bernhard, Tilman, David, Felten, Stefanie, and Weigelt, Alexandra. Fri . "Limited evidence for spatial resource partitioning across temperate grassland biodiversity experiments". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2905. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1800870.
@article{osti_1800870,
title = {Limited evidence for spatial resource partitioning across temperate grassland biodiversity experiments},
author = {Barry, Kathryn E. and Ruijven, Jasper and Mommer, Liesje and Bai, Yongfei and Beierkuhnlein, Carl and Buchmann, Nina and Kroon, Hans and Ebeling, Anne and Eisenhauer, Nico and Guimarães‐Steinicke, Claudia and Hildebrandt, Anke and Isbell, Forest and Milcu, Alexandru and Neßhöver, Carsten and Reich, Peter B. and Roscher, Christiane and Sauheitl, Leopold and Scherer‐Lorenzen, Michael and Schmid, Bernhard and Tilman, David and Felten, Stefanie and Weigelt, Alexandra},
abstractNote = {Locally, plant species richness supports many ecosystem functions. Yet, the mechanisms driving these often-positive biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships are not well understood. Spatial resource partitioning across vertical resource gradients is one of the main hypothesized causes for enhanced ecosystem functioning in more biodiverse grasslands. Spatial resource partitioning occurs if species differ in where they acquire resources and can happen both above- and belowground. However, studies investigating spatial resource partitioning in grasslands provide inconsistent evidence. We present the results of a meta-analysis of 21 data sets from experimental species-richness gradients in grasslands. We test the hypothesis that increasing spatial resource partitioning along vertical resource gradients enhances ecosystem functioning in diverse grassland plant communities above- and belowground. To test this hypothesis, we asked three questions. (1) Does species richness enhance biomass production or community resource uptake across sites? (2) Is there evidence of spatial resource partitioning as indicated by resource tracer uptake and biomass allocation above- and belowground? (3) Is evidence of spatial resource partitioning correlated with increased biomass production or community resource uptake? Although plant species richness enhanced community nitrogen and potassium uptake and biomass production above- and belowground, we found that plant communities did not meet our criteria for spatial resource partitioning, though they did invest in significantly more aboveground biomass in higher canopy layers in mixture relative to monoculture. Furthermore, the extent of spatial resource partitioning across studies was not positively correlated with either biomass production or community resource uptake. Our results suggest that spatial resource partitioning across vertical resource gradients alone does not offer a general explanation for enhanced ecosystem functioning in more diverse temperate grasslands.},
doi = {10.1002/ecy.2905},
journal = {Ecology},
number = 1,
volume = 101,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Fri Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

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