Linkages of plant traits to soil properties and the functioning of temperate grassland

Abstract

Summary1. Global change is likely to alter plant community structure, with consequences for the structure and functioning of the below-ground community and potential feedbacks to climate change. Understanding the mechanisms behind these plant-soil interactions and feedbacks to the Earth-system is therefore crucial. One approach to understanding such mechanisms is to use plant traits as predictors of functioning. 2. We used a field-based monoculture experiment involving nine grassland species that had been growing on the same base soil for 7 years to test whether leaf, litter and root traits associated with different plant growth strategies can be linked to an extensive range of soil properties relevant to carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycling. Soil properties included the biomass and structure of the soil microbial community, soil nutrients, soil microclimate and soil process rates. 3. Plant species with a high relative growth rate (RGR) were associated with high leaf and litter quality (e.g. low toughness, high nitrogen concentrations), an elevated biomass of bacteria relative to fungi in soil, high rates of soil nitrogen mineralization and concentrations of extractable inorganic nitrogen, and to some extent higher available phosphorus pools. 4. In contrast to current theory, species with a high RGR and litter quality were associated with soils with a lower rate of soil respiration and slow decomposition rates. This indicates that predicting processes that influence carbon cycling from plant traits may be more complex than predicting processes that influence nitrogen and phosphorus cycling. 5. Root traits did not show strong relationships to RGR, leaf or litter traits, but were strongly correlated with several soil properties, particularly the biomass of bacteria relative to fungi in soil and measures relating to soil carbon cycling. 6. Synthesis. Our results indicate that plant species from a single habitat can result in significant divergence in soil properties and functioning when grown in monoculture, and that many of these changes are strongly and predictably linked to variation in plant traits associated with different growth strategies. Traits therefore have the potential to be a powerful tool for understanding the mechanisms behind plant-soil interactions and ecosystem functioning, and for predicting how changes in plant species composition associated with global change will feedback to the Earth-system.

Differential influence of four invasive plant species on soil physicochemical properties in a pot experiment

“…The variability in the soil response to plant invasion revealed by different studies may be caused by a number of reasons, among which the most important are functional traits of invasive species and native vegetation, properties of recipient soil, season, and length of invasion history (Dassonville et al 2008;Liao et al 2008;Scharfy et al 2011;Tharayil et al 2013). Plants affect the soil environment through deposition of litter, exudation of chemical compounds via roots, or their leaching from plants by rain, as well as through nutrient uptake (Hobbie 1992;Orwin et al 2010;Haichar et al 2014;Ruckli et al 2014a). It is known that invasive plant species often produce huge amounts of biomass which differs considerably from that of native vegetation in chemical quality, for example lignin and element content, C/N and lignin/N ratios, and/or secondary metabolite concentrations (Dassonville et al 2007(Dassonville et al , 2008Tharayil et al 2013;Mincheva et al 2014).…”

Soil organic carbon and soil structure are driving microbial abundance and community composition across the arid and semi-arid grasslands in northern China

“…At a local scale, plant community structure is typically highly correlated with the microbial communities. Plant community structure can influence the quality and quantity of litter and exudates, and then resulted in the changes of microbial community (Bezemer et al, 2010;Orwin et al, 2010;Thomson et al, 2010). At a regional scale, abiotic factors, such as climate and soil parameters, are usually identified as key predictors of the microbial community structure.…”

Connecting silvan and lacustrine ecosystems: transport of carbon from forests to adjacent water bodies

“…Soil texture, structure, organic matter content and compaction affect the infiltration capacity as well as the water holding capacity, and thus the ability of water to move on (Green et al 2003). The root system influences the soil properties, and for a given soil type the infiltration capacity of a forest is usually clearly greater than that of bare ground (Orwin et al 2010).…”