Increases in global temperatures due to climate change threaten to
tip the balance between carbon (C) fluxes, liberating large amounts of C
from soils. Evidence of warming-induced increases in CO2 ...efflux from
soils has led to suggestions that this response of soil respiration
(RS) will trigger a positive land C–climate feedback cycle, ultimately
warming the Earth further. Currently, there is little consensus about the
mechanisms driving the warming-induced RS response, and there are
relatively few studies from ecosystems with large soil C stores. Here, we
investigate the impacts of experimental warming on RS in the C-rich
soils of a Tasmanian grassy sedgeland and whether alterations of plant
community composition or differences in microbial respiratory potential
could contribute to any effects. In situ, warming increased RS on average by
28 %, and this effect was consistent over time and across plant community
composition treatments. In contrast, warming had no impact on microbial
respiration in incubation experiments. Plant community composition
manipulations did not influence RS or the RS response to warming.
Processes driving the RS response in this experiment were, therefore,
not due to plant community effects and are more likely due to increases in
below-ground autotrophic respiration and the supply of labile substrate
through rhizodeposition and root exudates. CO2 efflux from this
high-C soil increased by more than a quarter in response to warming,
suggesting inputs need to increase by at least this amount if soil C stocks
are to be maintained. These results indicate the need for comprehensive
investigations of both C inputs and losses from C-rich soils if efforts to
model net ecosystem C exchange of these crucial, C-dense systems are to be
successful.
Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and global air temperature affect all terrestrial ecosystems and often lead to enhanced ecosystem productivity, which in turn dampens the rise in ...atmospheric CO₂ by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. As most terrestrial ecosystems are limited in their productivity by the availability of nitrogen (N), there is concern about the persistence of this terrestrial carbon sink, as these ecosystems might develop a progressive N limitation (PNL). An increase in the gross soil N turnover may alleviate PNL, as more mineral N is made available for plant uptake. So far, climate change experiments have mainly manipulated one climatic factor only, but there is evidence that single-factor experiments usually overestimate the effects of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, we investigated how simultaneous, decadal-long increases in CO₂ and temperature affect the soil gross N dynamics in a native Tasmanian grassland under C3 and C4 vegetation. Our laboratory ¹⁵N labeling experiment showed that average gross N mineralization ranged from 4.9 to 11.3 µg Ng⁻¹ day⁻¹ across the treatment combinations, while gross nitrification was about ten-times lower. Considering all treatment combinations, no significant effect of climatic treatments or vegetation type (C3 versus C4 grasses) on soil N cycling was observed.
Increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide are expected to affect carbon assimilation and evapotranspiration (ET), ultimately driving changes in plant growth, hydrology, and the global ...carbon balance. Direct leaf biochemical effects have been widely investigated, whereas indirect effects, although documented, elude explicit quantification in experiments. Here, we used a mechanistic model to investigate the relative contributions of direct (through carbon assimilation) and indirect (via soil moisture savings due to stomatal closure, and changes in leaf area index) effects of elevated CO2 across a variety of ecosystems. We specifically determined which ecosystems and climatic conditions maximize the indirect effects of elevated CO2 The simulations suggest that the indirect effects of elevated CO2 on net primary productivity are large and variable, ranging from less than 10% to more than 100% of the size of direct effects. For ET, indirect effects were, on average, 65% of the size of direct effects. Indirect effects tended to be considerably larger in water-limited ecosystems. As a consequence, the total CO2 effect had a significant, inverse relationship with the wetness index and was directly related to vapor pressure deficit. These results have major implications for our understanding of the CO2 response of ecosystems and for global projections of CO2 fertilization, because, although direct effects are typically understood and easily reproducible in models, simulations of indirect effects are far more challenging and difficult to constrain. Our findings also provide an explanation for the discrepancies between experiments in the total CO2 effect on net primary productivity.
In recent years, increased awareness of the potential interactions between rising atmospheric
CO2
concentrations (
CO2
) and temperature has illustrated the importance of multifactorial ecosystem ...manipulation experiments for validating Earth System models. To address the urgent need for increased understanding of responses in multifactorial experiments, this article synthesizes how ecosystem productivity and soil processes respond to combined warming and
CO2
manipulation, and compares it with those obtained in single factor
CO2
and temperature manipulation experiments. Across all combined elevated
CO2
and warming experiments, biomass production and soil respiration were typically enhanced. Responses to the combined treatment were more similar to those in the
CO2
‐only treatment than to those in the warming‐only treatment. In contrast to warming‐only experiments, both the combined and the
CO2
‐only treatments elicited larger stimulation of fine root biomass than of aboveground biomass, consistently stimulated soil respiration, and decreased foliar nitrogen (N) concentration. Nonetheless, mineral N availability declined less in the combined treatment than in the
CO2
‐only treatment, possibly due to the warming‐induced acceleration of decomposition, implying that progressive nitrogen limitation (PNL) may not occur as commonly as anticipated from single factor
CO2
treatment studies. Responses of total plant biomass, especially of aboveground biomass, revealed antagonistic interactions between elevated
CO2
and warming, i.e. the response to the combined treatment was usually less‐than‐additive. This implies that productivity projections might be overestimated when models are parameterized based on single factor responses. Our results highlight the need for more (and especially more long‐term) multifactor manipulation experiments. Because single factor
CO2
responses often dominated over warming responses in the combined treatments, our results also suggest that projected responses to future global warming in Earth System models should not be parameterized using single factor warming experiments.
The rising atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) should stimulate ecosystem productivity, but to what extent is highly uncertain, particularly when combined with changing temperature and ...precipitation. Ecosystem response to CO2 is complicated by biogeochemical feedbacks but must be understood if carbon storage and associated dampening of climate warming are to be predicted. Feedbacks through the hydrological cycle are particularly important and the physiology is well known; elevated CO2 reduces stomatal conductance and increases plant water use efficiency (the amount of water required to produce a unit of plant dry matter). The CO2 response should consequently be strongest when water is limiting; although this has been shown in some experiments, it is absent from many. Here we show that large annual variation in the stimulation of above-ground biomass by elevated CO2 in a mixed C3/C4 temperate grassland can be predicted accurately using seasonal rainfall totals; summer rainfall had a positive effect but autumn and spring rainfall had negative effects on the CO2 response. Thus, the elevated CO2 effect mainly depended upon the balance between summer and autumn/spring rainfall. This is partly because high rainfall during cool, moist seasons leads to nitrogen limitation, reducing or even preventing biomass stimulation by elevated CO2. Importantly, the prediction held whether plots were warmed by 2 °C or left unwarmed, and was similar for C3 plants and total biomass, allowing us to make a powerful generalization about ecosystem responses to elevated CO2. This new insight is particularly valuable because climate projections predict large changes in the timing of rainfall, even where annual totals remain static. Our findings will help resolve apparent differences in the outcomes of CO2 experiments and improve the formulation and interpretation of models that are insensitive to differences in the seasonal effects of rainfall on the CO2 response.
Interactions among neighbouring plants are key determinants of plant growth. To characterise the cumulative effect of all neighbours on the growth of a focal plant, neighbourhoods are often described ...by ‘competition’ indices. Common competition indices calculate the summed size of neighbour plants (focal‐independent index FII) whilst others include the summed ratio of the neighbour size relative to focal plant size (focal dependent). A frequently overlooked statistical artefact is that focal‐dependent indices (FDIs) may lead to biased estimates of neighbourhood effects on plant growth when growth is size dependent.
Here, we conduct a literature search to determine the most common index types used to explain neighbour effects on tree growth. We then assess the ability of two common index types—focal dependent and focal independent—to correctly infer neighbourhood effects in (1) observations of tree growth in an experimental forest in south‐east Tasmania, Australia, and (2) an artificially created dataset where tree growth is unrelated to the neighbourhood.
Both indices detected the competitive neighbourhood effect on tree growth observed in our own dataset but differed in their conclusion regarding neighbour effects in the simulated data. Despite the simulated dataset being generated so there was no relationship between tree growth and their neighbourhood, the FDI detected strong, competitive neighbourhood effects when intrinsic growth was incorrectly related to tree size. In contrast, when we considered the FII as the neighbourhood metric, we correctly did not detect any neighbourhood effects in the simulated data regardless of how size‐dependent growth was described.
Synthesis. ‘Competition’ indices are a useful method to characterise the cumulative neighbourhood effect on plant growth; however, we demonstrate that indices which include the size of the focal plant in their calculation can be biased by an inherent relationship between tree growth and initial size. Whilst this bias typically overstates the strength of competition in determining focal tree growth, we show that it can be mitigated by correctly describing intrinsic growth. We discuss the limitations of both index types, provide recommendations for performing statistical modelling and outline how to check for accurate neighbour inference.
‘Competition’ indices are a useful method to characterise the cumulative neighbourhood effect on plant growth; however, we demonstrate that indices which include the size of the focal plant in their calculation can be biased by an inherent relationship between tree growth and initial size. Whilst this bias typically overstates the strength of competition in determining focal tree growth, we show that it can be mitigated by correctly describing intrinsic growth. We discuss the limitations of both index types, provide recommendations for performing statistical modelling and outline how to check for accurate neighbour inference.
Summary
Large intraspecific functional trait variation strongly impacts many aspects of communities and ecosystems, and is the medium upon which evolution works. Yet intraspecific trait variation is ...inconsistent and hard to predict across traits, species and locations.
We measured within‐species variation in leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), branch wood density (WD), and allocation to stem area vs leaf area in branches (branch Huber value (HV)) across the aridity range of seven Australian eucalypts and a co‐occurring Acacia species to explore how traits and their variances change with aridity.
Within species, we found consistent increases in LMA, LDMC and WD and HV with increasing aridity, resulting in consistent trait coordination across leaves and branches. However, this coordination only emerged across sites with large climate differences. Unlike trait means, patterns of trait variance with aridity were mixed across populations and species. Only LDMC showed constrained trait variation in more xeric species and drier populations that could indicate limits to plasticity or heritable trait variation.
Our results highlight that climate can drive consistent within‐species trait patterns, but that patterns might often be obscured by the complex nature of morphological traits, sampling incomplete species ranges or sampling confounded stress gradients.
See also the Commentary on this article by Ahrens et al., 229: 1183–1185.
Summary
Vulnerability to xylem cavitation is a strong predictor of drought‐induced damage in forest communities. However, biotic features of the community itself can influence water availability at ...the individual tree‐level, thereby modifying patterns of drought damage.
Using an experimental forest in Tasmania, Australia, we determined the vulnerability to cavitation (leaf P50) of four tree species and assessed the drought‐induced canopy damage of 2944 6‐yr‐old trees after an extreme natural drought episode. We examined how individual damage was related to their size and the density and species identity of neighbouring trees.
The two co‐occurring dominant tree species, Eucalyptus delegatensis and Eucalyptus regnans, were the most vulnerable to drought‐induced xylem cavitation and both species suffered significantly greater damage than neighbouring, subdominant species Pomaderris apetala and Acacia dealbata. While the two eucalypts had similar leaf P50 values, E. delegatensis suffered significantly greater damage, which was strongly related to the density of neighbouring P. apetala. Damage in E. regnans was less impacted by neighbouring plants and smaller trees of both eucalypts sustained significantly more damage than larger trees.
Our findings demonstrate that natural drought damage is influenced by individual plant physiology as well as the composition, physiology and density of the surrounding stand.
The diversity‐functioning relationship is a pillar of ecology. Two significant concepts have emerged from this relationship: redundancy, the asymptotic relationship between diversity and functioning, ...and multifunctionality, a monotonic relationship between diversity and multiple functions occurring simultaneously. However, multifunctional redundancy, an asymptotic relationship between diversity and multiple functions occurring simultaneously, is rarely detected in research. Here we assess whether this lack of detection is due to its true rarity, or due to systematic research error. We discuss how inconsistencies in the use of terms such as ‘function’ lead to mismatched research. We consider the different techniques used to calculate multifunctionality and point out a rarely considered issue: how determining a function's maximum rate affects multifunctionality metrics. Lastly, we critique how a lack of consideration of multitrophic, spatiotemporal, interactions and community assembly processes in designed experiments significantly reduces the likelihood of detecting multifunctional redundancy. Multifunctionality research up to this stage has made significant contributions to our understanding of the diversity‐functioning relationship, and we believe that multifunctional redundancy is detectable with the use of appropriate methodologies.
Redundancy, the asymptotic relationship between diversity and ecosystem functioning, and multifunctionality, a monotonic relationship between diversity and multiple functions occurring simultaneously, are significant ecological concepts. However multifunctional redundancy, an asymptotic relationship between diversity and multiple functions occurring simultaneously, is rarely detected. Here we critically review multifunctionality literature to assess if it is truly rare or simply a result of a lack of terminological and methodological consensus.
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