Plants in infertile habitats are thought to have a high rate of nutrient resorption to enable them reuse nutrients more efficiently than those in fertile habitats. However, there is still much debate ...on how plant nutrient resorption responds to nutrient availability. Here we used a meta-analysis from a global data set of 9703 observations at 306 sites from 508 published articles to examine the effects of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilization on plant foliar N and P concentrations and resorption efficiency. We found that N fertilization enhanced N concentration in green leaves by 27% and P fertilization enhanced green-leaf P by 73% on average. The N and P concentrations in senesced leaves also increased with respective nutrient fertilization. Resorption efficiencies (percentage of nutrient recovered from senescing leaves) of both N and P declined in response to respective nutrient fertilization. Combined N and P fertilization also had negative effects on both N and P resorption efficiencies. Whether nutrient resorption efficiency differs among plant growth types and among ecosystems, however, remains uncertain due to the limited sample sizes when analyzed by plant growth types or ecosystem types. Our analysis indicates that fertilization decreases plant nutrient resorption and the view that nutrient resorption is a critical nutrient conservation strategy for plants in nutrient-poor environments cannot be abandoned. The response values to fertilization presented in our analysis can help improve biogeochemical models.
Abstract
Plant and soil C:N:P ratios are of critical importance to productivity, food-web dynamics, and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Plant diversity continues to decline ...globally; however, its influence on terrestrial C:N:P ratios remains uncertain. By conducting a global meta-analysis of 2049 paired observations in plant species mixtures and monocultures from 169 sites, we show that, on average across all observations, the C:N:P ratios of plants, soils, soil microbial biomass and enzymes did not respond to species mixture nor to the species richness in mixtures. However, the mixture effect on soil microbial biomass C:N changed from positive to negative, and those on soil enzyme C:N and C:P shifted from negative to positive with increasing functional diversity in mixtures. Importantly, species mixture increased the C:N, C:P, N:P ratios of plants and soils when background soil C:N, C:P, and N:P were low, but decreased them when the respective background ratios were high. Our results demonstrate that plant mixtures can balance terrestrial plant and soil C:N:P ratios dependent on background soil C:N:P. Our findings highlight that plant diversity conservation does not only increase plant productivity, but also optimizes ecosystem stoichiometry for the diversity and productivity of today’s and future vegetation.
Despite the emerging importance of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) as a metabolic hormone regulating energy balance, its direct effects on renal function remain unexplored. FGF21 was injected ip ...daily for 12 weeks into db/db mice. Compared with control vehicle injection, FGF21 treatment significantly improved lipid profiles and insulin resistance and resulted in significantly higher serum adiponectin levels. In contrast, serum insulin and 8-isoprostane levels were significantly decreased. Interestingly, FGF21 and its receptor components in the kidneys were found to be significantly up-regulated in db/db mice, which suggests an FGF21-resistant state. FGF21 treatment significantly down-regulated FGF21 receptor components and activated ERK phosphorylation. FGF21 administration also markedly decreased urinary albumin excretion and mesangial expansion and suppressed profibrotic molecule synthesis. Furthermore, FGF21 improved renal lipid metabolism and oxidative stress injury. In cultured renal cells, FGF21 was mainly expressed in mesangial cells, and knockdown of FGF21 expression by stealth small interfering RNA further aggravated high-glucose-induced profibrotic cytokine synthesis in mesangial cells. Our results suggest that FGF21 improves insulin resistance and protects against renal injury through both improvement of systemic metabolic alterations and antifibrotic effects in type 2 diabetic nephropathy. Targeting FGF21 could therefore provide a potential candidate approach for a therapeutic strategy in type 2 diabetic nephropathy.
Soil microorganisms are key to biological diversity and many ecosystem processes in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite the current alarming loss of plant diversity, it is unclear how plant species ...diversity affects soil microorganisms. By conducting a global meta-analysis with paired observations of plant mixtures and monocultures from 106 studies, we show that microbial biomass, bacterial biomass, fungal biomass, fungi:bacteria ratio, and microbial respiration increase, while Gram-positive to Gram-negative bacteria ratio decrease in response to plant mixtures. The increases in microbial biomass and respiration are more pronounced in older and more diverse mixtures. The effects of plant mixtures on all microbial attributes are consistent across ecosystem types including natural forests, planted forests, planted grasslands, croplands, and planted containers. Our study underlines strong relationships between plant diversity and soil microorganisms across global terrestrial ecosystems and suggests the importance of plant diversity in maintaining belowground ecosystem functioning.
Soil microbes comprise a large portion of the genetic diversity on Earth and influence a large number of important ecosystem processes. Increasing atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition represents a ...major global change driver; however, it is still debated whether the impacts of N deposition on soil microbial biomass and respiration are ecosystem-type dependent. Moreover, the extent of N deposition impacts on microbial composition remains unclear. Here we conduct a global meta-analysis using 1408 paired observations from 151 studies to evaluate the responses of soil microbial biomass, composition, and function to N addition. We show that nitrogen addition reduced total microbial biomass, bacterial biomass, fungal biomass, biomass carbon, and microbial respiration. Importantly, these negative effects increased with N application rate and experimental duration. Nitrogen addition reduced the fungi to bacteria ratio and the relative abundances of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and gram-negative bacteria and increased gram-positive bacteria. Our structural equation modeling showed that the negative effects of N application on soil microbial abundance and composition led to reduced microbial respiration. The effects of N addition were consistent across global terrestrial ecosystems. Our results suggest that atmospheric N deposition negatively affects soil microbial growth, composition, and function across all terrestrial ecosystems, with more pronounced effects with increasing N deposition rate and duration.
Despite the mounting evidence for positive diversity–productivity relationships found in controlled experiments, diversity effects on productivity in natural systems remain hotly debated. ...Understanding the multivariate links between diversity and productivity in natural systems, in particular natural forests that host the majority of terrestrial biodiversity and provide essential services for humanity, remains a critical challenge for ecologists. We analysed data from 448 plots of varying tree species diversity, stand ages and local nutrient availability in Canada's boreal forest (52°30′–55°24′ N latitude and 102°36′–108° W longitude). We used structural equation models to link multivariate relationships between above‐ground biomass, tree species diversity, stand age and soil nutrient availability. Above‐ground biomass increased with diversity indirectly via increasing tree size inequality, increased with stand age and was higher on sites of medium soil nutrient regime directly as well as indirectly via increased tree size inequality. Synthesis. Our results demonstrate positive diversity effects on above‐ground biomass in natural forests of diverse forest ages and soil resource availability. Furthermore, we show that tree size inequality acts as a mechanism for the positive diversity effects on above‐ground biomass and as a mechanism in regulating above‐ground biomass and species diversity simultaneously via interactions among individuals in natural forests.
An experiment to search for light sterile neutrinos is conducted at a reactor with a thermal power of 2.8 GW located at the Hanbit nuclear power complex. The search is done with a detector consisting ...of a ton of Gd-loaded liquid scintillator in a tendon gallery approximately 24 m from the reactor core. The measured antineutrino event rate is 1976 per day with a signal to background ratio of about 22. The shape of the antineutrino energy spectrum obtained from the eight-month data-taking period is compared with a hypothesis of oscillations due to active-sterile antineutrino mixing. No strong evidence of 3+1 neutrino oscillation is found. An excess around the 5 MeV prompt energy range is observed as seen in existing longer-baseline experiments. The mixing parameter sin^{2}2θ_{14} is limited up to less than 0.1 for Δm_{41}^{2} ranging from 0.2 to 2.3 eV^{2} with a 90% confidence level.
Tropospheric ozone significantly damages vegetation and reduces net primary productivity (NPP). We developed a stable linear NPP response model based on accumulated ozone exposure over a threshold of ...40 parts per billion (ppb) (AOT40). We then estimated the effects of regional ozone damage on NPP for different vegetation types. The study suggests an average decrease in NPP of 24.7% due to ozone pollution in the North China Plain, similar to previous estimates ranging from 10.1% to 24.7%, with a maximum reduction exceeding 200 g C m‐2 yr‐1 and more than 50%. Vegetation types such as broadleaf forests, needleleaf forest, crops, and grasses showed significant NPP decreases of 47.1%, 37.8%, 36.7%, and 44.6%, respectively. Declining NPP also had negative impacts on several Chinese crop species. Our work highlights the need for urgent and effective action to mitigate ozone pollution's substantial detrimental effects on ecosystem health and productivity.
Plain Language Summary
Ozone pollution led to an average 25% decrease in net primary productivity in the North China Plain. This decline is consistent with previous estimates that ranged from 10% to 25%. Productivity of forest trees, crops, and grasses declined significantly, ranging from 36.7% to 47.1%. These results have implications for Chinese crops, as lower crop productivity can negatively affect crop yields. Our study highlights the urgent need for action to mitigate the detrimental effects of ozone pollution on ecosystem health and productivity.
Key Points
We developed a stable model to estimate ozone impact on the productivity of plants'
Ozone pollution resulted in an average decline in productivity of 25% per year in all ecosystem types in the North China Plain region
Ozone pollution led to net primary productivity declines in forest, crops, and grasses, with reductions ranging from 36.7% to 47.1%
1. Although there is ample support for positive species richness–productivity relationships in planted grassland experiments, a recent 48‐site study found no diversity–productivity relationship (DPR) ...in herbaceous communities. Thus, debate persists about diversity effects in natural versus planted systems. Additionally, current knowledge is weak regarding the influence of evenness on the DPRs, how DPRs are affected by the variation in life‐history traits among constituent species in polycultures and how DPRs differ among biomes. The impacts of these factors on DPRs in forest ecosystems are even more poorly understood. 2. We performed a meta‐analysis of 54 studies to reconcile DPRs in forest ecosystems. We quantified the net diversity effect as log effect size ln(ES), the log ratio of the productivity in polycultures to the average of those in monocultures within the same type of mixture, site condition and stand age of each study. The first use of a boosted regression tree model in meta‐analysis, a useful method to partition the effects of multiple predictors rather than relying on vote‐counting of individual studies, unveiled the relative influences of individual predictors. 3. Global average ln(ES) was 0.2128, indicating 23.7% higher productivity in polycultures than monocultures. The final model explained 21% of the variation in ln(ES). The predictors that substantially accounted for the explained variation included evenness (34%), heterogeneity of shade tolerance (29%), richness (13%) and stand age (15%). In contrast, heterogeneity of nitrogen fixation and growth habits, biome and stand origin (naturally established versus planted) contributed negligibly (each ≤ 4%). Log effect size strongly increased with evenness from 0.6 to 1 and with richness from 2 to 6. Furthermore, it was higher with heterogeneity of shade tolerance and generally increased with stand age. 4. Synthesis. Our analysis is, to our knowledge, the first to demonstrate the critical role of species evenness, richness and the importance of contrasting traits in defining net diversity effects in forest polycultures. While testing the specific mechanisms is beyond the scope of our analysis, our results should motivate future studies to link richness, evenness, contrasting traits and life‐history stage to the mechanisms that are expected to produce positive net biodiversity effects such as niche differentiation, facilitation and reduced Janzen–Connell effects.
Biomass change of the world's forests is critical to the global carbon cycle. Despite storing nearly half of global forest carbon, the boreal biome of diverse forest types and ages is a poorly ...understood component of the carbon cycle. Using data from 871 permanent plots in the western boreal forest of Canada, we examined net annual aboveground biomass change (ΔAGB) of four major forest types between 1958 and 2011. We found that ΔAGB was higher for deciduous broadleaf (DEC) (1.44 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹, 95% Bayesian confidence interval (CI), 1.22–1.68) and early‐successional coniferous forests (ESC) (1.42, CI, 1.30–1.56) than mixed forests (MIX) (0.80, CI, 0.50–1.11) and late‐successional coniferous (LSC) forests (0.62, CI, 0.39–0.88). ΔAGB declined with forest age as well as calendar year. After accounting for the effects of forest age, ΔAGB declined by 0.035, 0.021, 0.032 and 0.069 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ per calendar year in DEC, ESC, MIX and LSC forests, respectively. The ΔAGB declines resulted from increased tree mortality and reduced growth in all forest types except DEC, in which a large biomass loss from mortality was accompanied with a small increase in growth. With every degree of annual temperature increase, ΔAGB decreased by 1.00, 0.20, 0.55 and 1.07 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ in DEC, ESC, MIX and LSC forests, respectively. With every cm decrease of annual climatic moisture availability, ΔAGB decreased 0.030, 0.045 and 0.17 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ in ESC, MIX and LSC forests, but changed little in DEC forests. Our results suggest that persistent warming and decreasing water availability have profound negative effects on forest biomass in the boreal forests of western Canada. Furthermore, our results indicate that forest responses to climate change are strongly dependent on forest composition with late‐successional coniferous forests being most vulnerable to climate changes in terms of aboveground biomass.
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