Identifying qualitative effects of different grazing types on below-ground communities and function in a long-term field experiment: Impact of grazing type on below-ground ecology
Abstract
Herbivory is an important modulator of plant biodiversity and productivity in grasslands, but our understanding of herbivore-induced changes on below-ground processes and communities is limited. Using a long-term (17 years) experimental site, we evaluated impacts of rabbit and invertebrate grazers on some soil functions involved in carbon cycling, microbial diversity, structure and functional composition. Both rabbit and invertebrate grazing impacted soil functions and microbial community structure. All functional community measures (functions, biogeochemical cycling genes, network association between different taxa) were more strongly affected by invertebrate grazers than rabbits. Furthermore, our results suggest that exclusion of invertebrate grazers decreases both microbial biomass and abundance of genes associated with key biogeochemical cycles, and could thus have long-term consequences for ecosystem functions. The mechanism behind these impacts are likely to be driven by both direct effects of grazing altering the pattern of nutrient inputs and by indirect effects through changes in plant species composition. However, we could not entirely discount that the pesticide used to exclude invertebrates may have affected some microbial community measures. Finally, our work illustrates that human activity that affects grazing intensity may affect ecosystem functioning and sustainability, as regulated by multi-trophic interactions between above- and below-ground communities.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW (Australia)
- Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire (United Kingdom)
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- The James Hutton Inst., Aberdeen (United Kingdom)
- Univ. of Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
- Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth Science Division; Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1579709
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Microbiology
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 17; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 1462-2912
- Publisher:
- Wiley
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Macdonald, Catriona A., Crawley, Michael J., Wright, Denis J., Kuczynski, Justin, Robinson, Lucinda, Knight, Rob, Al-Soud, Waleed Abu, Sørensen, Søren J., Deng, Ye, Zhou, Jizhong, and Singh, Brajesh K. Identifying qualitative effects of different grazing types on below-ground communities and function in a long-term field experiment: Impact of grazing type on below-ground ecology. United States: N. p., 2014.
Web. doi:10.1111/1462-2920.12539.
Macdonald, Catriona A., Crawley, Michael J., Wright, Denis J., Kuczynski, Justin, Robinson, Lucinda, Knight, Rob, Al-Soud, Waleed Abu, Sørensen, Søren J., Deng, Ye, Zhou, Jizhong, & Singh, Brajesh K. Identifying qualitative effects of different grazing types on below-ground communities and function in a long-term field experiment: Impact of grazing type on below-ground ecology. United States. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.12539
Macdonald, Catriona A., Crawley, Michael J., Wright, Denis J., Kuczynski, Justin, Robinson, Lucinda, Knight, Rob, Al-Soud, Waleed Abu, Sørensen, Søren J., Deng, Ye, Zhou, Jizhong, and Singh, Brajesh K. Mon .
"Identifying qualitative effects of different grazing types on below-ground communities and function in a long-term field experiment: Impact of grazing type on below-ground ecology". United States. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.12539. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1579709.
@article{osti_1579709,
title = {Identifying qualitative effects of different grazing types on below-ground communities and function in a long-term field experiment: Impact of grazing type on below-ground ecology},
author = {Macdonald, Catriona A. and Crawley, Michael J. and Wright, Denis J. and Kuczynski, Justin and Robinson, Lucinda and Knight, Rob and Al-Soud, Waleed Abu and Sørensen, Søren J. and Deng, Ye and Zhou, Jizhong and Singh, Brajesh K.},
abstractNote = {Herbivory is an important modulator of plant biodiversity and productivity in grasslands, but our understanding of herbivore-induced changes on below-ground processes and communities is limited. Using a long-term (17 years) experimental site, we evaluated impacts of rabbit and invertebrate grazers on some soil functions involved in carbon cycling, microbial diversity, structure and functional composition. Both rabbit and invertebrate grazing impacted soil functions and microbial community structure. All functional community measures (functions, biogeochemical cycling genes, network association between different taxa) were more strongly affected by invertebrate grazers than rabbits. Furthermore, our results suggest that exclusion of invertebrate grazers decreases both microbial biomass and abundance of genes associated with key biogeochemical cycles, and could thus have long-term consequences for ecosystem functions. The mechanism behind these impacts are likely to be driven by both direct effects of grazing altering the pattern of nutrient inputs and by indirect effects through changes in plant species composition. However, we could not entirely discount that the pesticide used to exclude invertebrates may have affected some microbial community measures. Finally, our work illustrates that human activity that affects grazing intensity may affect ecosystem functioning and sustainability, as regulated by multi-trophic interactions between above- and below-ground communities.},
doi = {10.1111/1462-2920.12539},
journal = {Environmental Microbiology},
number = 3,
volume = 17,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jun 16 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Mon Jun 16 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}
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