Shrubs facilitate herbaceous communities in a desert by modifying soil properties

Xie, Lina; Han, Lei; Guo, Hongyu; Zhao, Fang; Gao, Fanglei; Zhang, Guogang; Ma, Chunhua

doi:10.1007/s11104-022-05774-x

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Our observation of higher moisture in interspace soil than under shrubs conflicts with many prior reports of the opposing pattern (e.g., Hong-Fei et al, 2010; Li et al, 2010; Xie et al, 2022), including wetter soils under the shrub Flourensia cernua (tarbush) than interspaces in areas neighboring our study site (Kidron & Gutschick, 2013). Many of the available studies of soil moisture in drylands have focused on hillslopes or, conversely, on low lying areas with fine-textured soils while we measured soil moisture of a gently sloping alluvial site with relatively coarse-textured soils.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 86%

Quantifying potential abiotic drivers of the ‘nurse-plant effect’ in two dominant shrub species of the northern Chihuahuan Desert

Ferrenberg,

Faist,

Osborne

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Aggregations of plants surrounded by areas without vegetation cover in dryland ecosystems are thought to arise when larger plants facilitate the recruitment and/or performance of smaller “protégé” plants—a phenomenon referred to as the “nurse-plant” effect. While numerous drivers can generate a nurse-plant effect, efforts to quantify multiple drivers simultaneously are rare. After verifying a higher density of protégés beneath the foundational shrubsLarrea tridentataandProsopis glandulosa, multiple potential mechanisms underlying the nurse-plant effect were quantified in the Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico. Comparisons of properties under shrub canopies relative to unvegetated interspaces revealed significantly greater concentrations of soil nutrients and lower photosynthetically active radiation and soil temperatures beneath shrubs but a consistently higher soil moisture in interspaces despite a greater water holding capacity in soils beneath shrubs. Nutrient concentrations were greater, on average, in soils beneathP. glandulosathanL. tridentatabut protégé plant numbers did not significantly differ among the species. Further, inL. tridentataandP. glandulosa,canopy size was positively related to levels of understory shading, and canopy size ofP. glandulosawas also positively related to soil nitrogen and microbial biomass. Results of this study suggest that a majority of the variance in the abiotic nurse-plant effect of this low-latitude system is explained by radiation interception and the concomitant reduction in temperatures experienced by protégé plants as opposed to direct effects of shrubs on soil water availability. As global change pressures intensify in drylands, a loss of perennial plant cover through mortality or dieback in canopies could have substantial, negative effects on soil biogeochemical pools and plant diversity. Additional quantification of the spatial and temporal variance in different mechanisms driving the nurse-plant effect across environmental and climatic gradients is needed to improve our understanding of plant community dynamics in dryland ecosystems.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 86%

Quantifying potential abiotic drivers of the ‘nurse-plant effect’ in two dominant shrub species of the northern Chihuahuan Desert

Ferrenberg,

Faist,

Osborne

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…Aboveground biomass was significantly higher in the shrub patches than in the herb patches, significantly increasing water retention in the shallow soil (Segoli et al., 2008 ). In addition, shrubs alter the distribution of precipitation resources, with more soil moisture and rainfall distributed under the shrub canopy (Xie et al., 2022 ). Therefore, this may also lead to more bacterial community diversity in shrubs than in herb patches.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in soil bacterial community characteristics in patches of different vegetation types under different stages of restoration in the desert of northern China

Li,

Liang,

Meng

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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In desert areas, the process of mobile sandy land changing to semi‐fixed sandy land and eventually to fixed sandy land after undergoing vegetation restoration is inevitable. The presence of shrub patches and herb patches is common in this restoration process. No relevant studies have reported the soil bacterial community characteristics of different vegetation‐type patches (shrub patches and herb patches) under different stages of restoration. Therefore, we utilized long‐established experimental plots to collect soil from 0–20 cm soil layer under shrub patches (dominated by Salix psammophila) and herb patches under different stages of restoration (i.e., mobile sand land, semi‐fixed sand land, and fixed sand land), by determining soil physicochemical properties, enzyme activities, and soil bacterial communities. Our results found that soil bacterial α‐diversity under different restoration stages showed higher shrub patches than herb patches. The dominant bacterial communities (phyla) in shrub patches and herb patches at different recovery stages were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidota. When the mobile sandy land returned to fixed sandy land, the relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Bacteroidota gradually decreased under shrub patches and herb patches, while the relative abundance of Proteobacteria increased significantly. In addition, herb patches significantly increased the relative abundance of bacteria (genus) relative to shrub patches at different stages of recovery. Soil nutrients, soil fine particles, and soil enzyme activities were significantly higher under shrub patches than under herb patches when fixed sandy land due to differences in life form and architecture between shrub patches and herb patches. Based on this, soil bacterial community composition and diversity under shrub patches were driven by more soil properties during the restoration of sandy land. This study complements the dynamic recovery processes and driving mechanisms of soil bacterial community structure under different vegetation patches in sandy areas, especially in the context of global climate change.

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“…(1992). These soil nutrients are crucial for understanding the effect of fertility islands induced by shrubs in structuring herbaceous community assembly (Xie et al., 2022).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Soil available potassium (K) and phosphorus (P) were estimated by the methods prescribed by Buondonno et al (1992). These soil nutrients are crucial for understanding the effect of fertility islands induced by shrubs in structuring herbaceous community assembly (Xie et al, 2022). S13) and a total of 15 quadrats were studied in this community, so we created synthetic data sets comprising five randomly selected quadrats of shrub under the canopy and 10 quadrats from open areas in proportion to the percentages of shrub cover and open habitat (Cavieres & Badano, 2009).…”

Section: Soil Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shrubs exhibit competitive interactions with herbaceous plants and shape community assemblage and functional composition in the alpine western Himalaya

Ram,

Chawla

2024

J Vegetation Science

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QuestionsIn the alpine region of the Himalaya, shrubs play a vital role in maintaining the diversity and functional composition of associated herbaceous communities through competition–facilitation interactions under varying environmental stress conditions. In this study, we specified the following questions: (1) what is the mode of interaction between dominant shrubs and the associated herbaceous communities; (2) how do differences in resource availability between contrasting microhabitats mediate interactions between shrub and herbaceous communities; and (3) how do dominant shrubs influence the functional composition of herbaceous communities under the canopy as compared to ones in the open?Study areaAn alpine region of the western Himalaya, in India (32.24–33.15° N, 76.51–78.13° E).MethodsField studies were conducted to evaluate the canopy effects of alpine shrubs such as Caragana versicolor, Juniperus polycarpos and Rhododendron anthopogon on species richness, abundance and functional composition of coexisting herbaceous communities.ResultsThe dominant alpine shrubs of the western Himalaya exert competitive interactions with associated herbaceous communities and have low species richness and abundance under their canopies compared to open habitats. Further, contrary to expectations, competitive interactions were more prominent at higher elevations than at lower ones, especially for J. polycarpos and C. versicolor. Although the shrub undercanopies possessed richer soil nutrient pools, this did not contribute toward the facilitation of herbaceous species under the canopies. Moreover, herbaceous species under the canopies were found to exhibit resource‐acquisitive functional strategies, whereas those in the open were resource‐conservative.ConclusionsThe interaction between dominant alpine shrubs and the herbaceous community of the western Himalaya is competitive in nature, which influences species and functional composition and reorganizes herbaceous community assembly. Moreover, under future climate change scenarios the dominance of these shrubs will favour those herbaceous species that possess more competitive and resource‐acquisitive functional strategies.

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Shrubs facilitate herbaceous communities in a desert by modifying soil properties

Cited by 7 publications

References 69 publications

Quantifying potential abiotic drivers of the ‘nurse-plant effect’ in two dominant shrub species of the northern Chihuahuan Desert

Quantifying potential abiotic drivers of the ‘nurse-plant effect’ in two dominant shrub species of the northern Chihuahuan Desert

Changes in soil bacterial community characteristics in patches of different vegetation types under different stages of restoration in the desert of northern China

Shrubs exhibit competitive interactions with herbaceous plants and shape community assemblage and functional composition in the alpine western Himalaya

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