Assessment of Habitat Suitability Is Affected by Plant-Soil Feedback: Comparison of Field and Garden Experiment

Abstract

BackgroundField translocation experiments (i.e., the introduction of seeds or seedlings of different species into different localities) are commonly used to study habitat associations of species, as well as factors limiting species distributions and local abundances. Species planted or sown in sites where they naturally occur are expected to perform better or equally well compared to sites at which they do not occur or are rare. This, however, contrasts with the predictions of the Janzen-Connell hypothesis and commonly reported intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback. The few previous studies indicating poorer performance of plants at sites where they naturally occur did not explore the mechanisms behind this pattern.Aims and MethodsIn this study, we used field translocation experiments established using both seeds and seedlings to study the determinants of local abundance of four dominant species in grasslands. To explore the possible effects of intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback on our results, we tested the effect of local species abundance on the performance of the plants in the field experiment. In addition, we set up a garden experiment to explore the intensity of intraspecific as well as interspecific feedback between the dominants used in the experiment.Key ResultsIn some cases, the distribution and local abundances of the species were partly driven by habitat conditions at the sites, and species performed better at their own sites. However, the prevailing pattern was that the local dominants performed worse at sites where they naturally occur than at any other sites. Moreover, the success of plants in the field experiment was lower in the case of higher intraspecific abundance prior to experimental setup. In the garden feedback experiment, two of the species performed significantly worse in soils conditioned by their species than in soils conditioned by the other species. In addition, the performance of the plants was significantly correlated between the two experiments, suggesting that plant-soil feedback is a likely explanation of the patterns observed in the field.ConclusionsAll of the results indicate that intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback, either biotic or abiotic, may be a key factor determining the performance of the plants in our field translocation experiment. The possible effects of negative feedback should thus be considered when evaluating results of translocation experiments in future studies.

Genetic differentiation and plasticity interact along temperature and precipitation gradients to determine plant performance under climate change

“…The temperature in the growth chamber differed between the cold and warm treatments and changed over the growing season following the course of temperature at the natural localities (for details, see Table ). To set the correct moisture level in the growth chambers, we used TMS5 data‐loggers to continuously measure soil moisture in the pots (TOMST Co., Hemrová, Knappová & Münzbergová ) and identified the correct level of watering to achieve soil moisture comparable to that at the localities. As a result of this calibration, the dry regime plants were watered with about 20 mL of tap water per plant applied to the trays if the soil moisture was lower than 15%.…”

Relative importance of drought, soil quality, and plant species in determining the strength of plant–herbivore interactions

“…Moisture of the substrate in the pots was monitored by TMS3 Climatic Stations (Tomst Co., Prague, Czech Republic, www.tomst.com; Hemrová et al, 2016), one logger per treatment and species. We used seeds of six different plant species, A. lappa, Arctium tomentosum Mill., C. acanthoides, Centaurea jacea L., C. stoebe and C. vulgare.…”

“…All the pots also received natural rainfall (c. 130 mm over 2 months according to data from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute; www.chmi.cz). Moisture of the substrate in the pots was monitored by TMS3 Climatic Stations (Tomst Co., Prague, Czech Republic, www.tomst.com; Hemrová et al, 2016), one logger per treatment and species. This monitoring demonstrated that moisture of the substrate in the wet regime was, on average, c. 41% higher than in the dry regime.…”

Establishment limitation may be more important than species dispersal: insights from dry grasslands and old‐fields

“…2). In the latter, especially environmental stress during early establishment is relatively severe (M€ unzbergov a 2004;Hemrov a et al 2016). In contrast, a sowing experiment in old-fields demonstrated facilitative effects of vegetation during a drier spring (Knappov a et al 2013), although in general the competitive effects prevailed.…”