Nitrogen deposition and climate change have increased vascular plant species richness and altered the composition of grazed subalpine grasslands

Boutin, Marion; Corcket, Emmanuel; Alard, Didier; Villar, Luis; Jiménez, Juan J.; Blaix, Cian; Lemaire, Cédric; Corriol, Gilles; Lamaze, Thierry; Pornon, André

doi:10.1111/1365-2745.12743

Cited by 46 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…The CWM SLA had a quadratic hump‐shaped relationship with N deposition as well as acidification rate, although this was weaker than the negative linear relationship with temperature. Higher N availability from increased atmospheric deposition can increase SLA (and growth rates) through favouring highly resource‐competitive species over more N‐efficient species (Reich, Walters, & Ellsworth, ; Westoby et al, ; Poorter, Niinemets, Poorter, Wright, & Villar, ; Boutin et al, ), while beyond a certain threshold or critical load of deposition (here ca. 18 kg·ha −1 ·year −1 ), growth reductions from N saturation and potential acidification may occur, as suggested by these results (Aber, , ; Bobbink et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant functional trait response to environmental drivers across European temperate forest understorey communities

et al. 2020

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Functional traits respond to environmental drivers, hence evaluating trait-environment relationships across spatial environmental gradients can help to understand how multiple drivers influence plant communities. Global-change drivers such as changes in atmospheric nitrogen deposition occur worldwide, but affect community trait distributions at the local scale, where resources (e.g. light availability) and conditions (e.g. soil pH) also influence plant communities.• We investigate how multiple environmental drivers affect community trait responses related to resource acquisition (plant height, specific leaf area (SLA), woodiness, and mycorrhizal status) and regeneration (seed mass, lateral spread) of European temperate deciduous forest understoreys. We sampled understorey communities and derived trait responses across spatial gradients of global-change drivers (temperature, precipitation, nitrogen deposition, and past land use), while integrating in-situ plot measurements on resources and conditions (soil type, Olsen phosphorus (P), Ellenberg soil moisture, light, litter mass, and litter quality).• Among the global-change drivers, mean annual temperature strongly influenced traits related to resource acquisition. Higher temperatures were associated with taller understoreys producing leaves with lower SLA, and a higher proportional cover of woody and obligate mycorrhizal (OM) species. Communities in plots with higher Ellenberg soil moisture content had smaller seeds and lower proportional cover of woody and OM species. Finally, plots with thicker litter layers hosted taller understoreys with larger seeds and a higher proportional cover of OM species.• Our findings suggest potential community shifts in temperate forest understoreys with global warming, and highlight the importance of local resources and conditions as well as global-change drivers for community trait variation. Hansen et al., 2001;Walther, 2010;De Frenne et al., 2011;Bernhardt-R€ omermann et al., 2015;Bjorkman et al., 2018). Important global change drivers affecting temperate plant communities include increased temperatures, changes in Plant Biology 22 (2020) 410-424

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant functional trait response to environmental drivers across European temperate forest understorey communities

et al. 2020

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“…Oklahoma (Shi et al 2018) and the Pyrenees (Boutin et al 2017), for snowbed and nival vegetation in the European Alps (Matteodo et al 2016;Lamprecht et al 2018) and for tussock tundra in Alaska (Leffler et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in plant composition and diversity in an Alpine heath and meadow after 18 years of experimental warming

Alatalo¹,

Erfanian²,

Molau³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background and aim Global warming is expected to have large impacts on high alpine and Arctic ecosystems in future. Here we report the effects of 18 years of experimental warming on two contrasting high alpine plant communities in subarctic Sweden.Methods Using open-top chambers (OTCs), we analysed the effects of long-term passive experimental warming on two high alpine plant communities, a species- and nutrient-poor heath and a more nutrient- and species-rich mesic meadow. We determined the impact on species composition, species diversity (at the level of rare, frequent and dominant species in each community), and phylogenetic and functional diversity.Key results Long-term warming drove differentiation in the species composition in both heath and meadow vegetation, with the warmed plots having distinctly different species composition in 2013 compared with 1995. In addition, variability in species composition increased in the meadow, while it decreased in the heath. The long-term warming had a significant negative effect on the three orders of phylogenetic Hill diversity in the meadow. There was a similar tendency in the heath, but only the phylogenetic diversity of dominant species was significantly affected. Long-term warming caused a reduction in graminoids in the heath, while deciduous shrubs increased. In the meadow, cushion-forming plants showed an increase in abundance from 2001 to 2013 in the warmed plots. Conclusions Responses in species and phylogenetic diversity to experimental warming varied over both time (medium vs long-term responses) and space (i.e. between the two neighbouring plant communities heath and meadow). The meadow community was more negatively affected in terms of species and phylogenetic diversity than the heath community. A potential driver for the changes in the meadow may be decreased soil moisture caused by the long-term warming.

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“…Certain types of terrain can form distinct microclimates, which indirectly affect the distribution of soil moisture and nutrients (Boutin et al, ). In temperate regions, environmental and ecological factors vary along altitude gradients and as altitude increases ambient temperature decreases, and annual precipitation, light exposure, and ultraviolet radiation increases, which affect the utilization of leaf nutrients (Wright et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

N‐P utilization ofAcer monoleaves at different life history stages across altitudinal gradients

Song

Liu

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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The relationship between plants and the environment is a core area of research in ecology. Owing to differences in plant sensitivity to the environment at different life history stages, the adaptive strategies of plants are a cumulative result of both their life history and environment. Previous research on plant adaptation strategies has focused on adult plants, neglecting saplings or seedlings, which are more sensitive to the environment and largely affect the growth strategy of subsequent life stages. We compared leaf N and P stoichiometric traits of the seedlings, saplings, and adult trees of Acer mono Maxim and different altitudes and found significant linear trends for both life history stages and altitude. Leaf N and P content by unit mass were greatly affected by environmental change, and the leaf N and P content by unit area varied greatly by life history stage. Acer mono leaf N‐P utilization showed a significant allometric growth trend in all life history stages and at low altitudes. The adult stage had higher N‐use efficiency than the seedling stage and exhibited an isometric growth trend at high altitudes. The N‐P utilization strategies of A. mono leaves are affected by changing environmental conditions, but their response is further dependent upon the life history stage of the plant. Thus, this study provides novel insights into the nutrient use strategies of A. mono and how they respond to the environmental temperature, soil moisture content along altitude and how these changes differ among different life history stages, which further provide the scientific basis for the study of plant nutrient utilization strategy on regional scale.

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Nitrogen deposition and climate change have increased vascular plant species richness and altered the composition of grazed subalpine grasslands

Cited by 46 publications

References 71 publications

Plant functional trait response to environmental drivers across European temperate forest understorey communities

Plant functional trait response to environmental drivers across European temperate forest understorey communities

Changes in plant composition and diversity in an Alpine heath and meadow after 18 years of experimental warming

N‐P utilization ofAcer monoleaves at different life history stages across altitudinal gradients

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