Foliar fungi and plant diversity drive ecosystem carbon fluxes in experimental prairies

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd..

Plant diversity and plant-consumer/pathogen interactions likely interact to influence ecosystem carbon fluxes but experimental evidence is scarce. We examined how experimental removal of foliar fungi, soil fungi and arthropods from experimental prairies planted with 1, 4 or 16 plant species affected instantaneous rates of carbon uptake (GPP), ecosystem respiration (Re ) and net ecosystem exchange (NEE). Increasing plant diversity increased plant biomass, GPP and Re , but NEE remained unchanged. Removing foliar fungi increased GPP and NEE, with the greatest effects at low plant diversity. After accounting for plant biomass, we found that removing foliar fungi increased mass-specific flux rates in the low-diversity plant communities by altering plant species composition and community-wide foliar nitrogen content. However, this effect disappeared when soil fungi and arthropods were also removed, demonstrating that both plant diversity and interactions among consumer groups determine the ecosystem-scale effects of plant-fungal interactions.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

Erschienen:

2021

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:24

Enthalten in:

Ecology letters - 24(2021), 3 vom: 01. März, Seite 487-497

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Kohli, Mayank [VerfasserIn]
Henning, Jeremiah A [VerfasserIn]
Borer, Elizabeth T [VerfasserIn]
Kinkel, Linda [VerfasserIn]
Seabloom, Eric W [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

7440-44-0
Biodiversity loss
Biodiversity-ecosystem function
Carbon
Consumer effects
Ecosystem CO2 fluxes
Letter
Plant-herbivore interaction
Plant-pathogen interaction
Soil

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 15.02.2021

Date Revised 15.02.2021

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1111/ele.13663

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM318656841