Functional trait trade-offs define plant population stability across different biomes.

Ecological theory posits that temporal stability patterns in plant populations are associated with differences in species' ecological strategies. However, empirical evidence is lacking about which traits, or trade-offs, underlie species stability, especially across different biomes. We compiled a worldwide collection of long-term permanent vegetation records (greater than 7000 plots from 78 datasets) from a large range of habitats which we combined with existing trait databases. We tested whether the observed inter-annual variability in species abundance (coefficient of variation) was related to multiple individual traits. We found that populations with greater leaf dry matter content and seed mass were more stable over time. Despite the variability explained by these traits being low, their effect was consistent across different datasets. Other traits played a significant, albeit weaker, role in species stability, and the inclusion of multi-variate axes or phylogeny did not substantially modify nor improve predictions. These results provide empirical evidence and highlight the relevance of specific ecological trade-offs, i.e. in different resource-use and dispersal strategies, for plant populations stability across multiple biomes. Further research is, however, necessary to integrate and evaluate the role of other specific traits, often not available in databases, and intraspecific trait variability in modulating species stability.

Synchrony matters more than species richness in plant community stability at a global scale.

The stability of ecological communities is critical for the stable provisioning of ecosystem services, such as food and forage production, carbon sequestration, and soil fertility. Greater biodiversity is expected to enhance stability across years by decreasing synchrony among species, but the drivers of stability in nature remain poorly resolved. Our analysis of time series from 79 datasets across the world showed that stability was associated more strongly with the degree of synchrony among dominant species than with species richness. The relatively weak influence of species richness is consistent with theory predicting that the effect of richness on stability weakens when synchrony is higher than expected under random fluctuations, which was the case in most communities. Land management, nutrient addition, and climate change treatments had relatively weak and varying effects on stability, modifying how species richness, synchrony, and stability interact. Our results demonstrate the prevalence of biotic drivers on ecosystem stability, with the potential for environmental drivers to alter the intricate relationship among richness, synchrony, and stability.

Priming effect and microbial diversity in ecosystem functioning and response to global change: a modeling approach using the SYMPHONY model.

Integration of the priming effect (PE) in ecosystem models is crucial to better predict the consequences of global change on ecosystem carbon (C) dynamics and its feedbacks on climate. Over the last decade, many attempts have been made to model PE in soil. However, PE has not yet been incorporated into any ecosystem models. Here, we build plant/soil models to explore how PE and microbial diversity influence soil/plant interactions and ecosystem C and nitrogen (N) dynamics in response to global change (elevated CO2 and atmospheric N depositions). Our results show that plant persistence, soil organic matter (SOM) accumulation, and low N leaching in undisturbed ecosystems relies on a fine adjustment of microbial N mineralization to plant N uptake. This adjustment can be modeled in the SYMPHONY model by considering the destruction of SOM through PE, and the interactions between two microbial functional groups: SOM decomposers and SOM builders. After estimation of parameters, SYMPHONY provided realistic predictions on forage production, soil C storage and N leaching for a permanent grassland. Consistent with recent observations, SYMPHONY predicted a CO2 -induced modification of soil microbial communities leading to an intensification of SOM mineralization and a decrease in the soil C stock. SYMPHONY also indicated that atmospheric N deposition may promote SOM accumulation via changes in the structure and metabolic activities of microbial communities. Collectively, these results suggest that the PE and functional role of microbial diversity may be incorporated in ecosystem models with a few additional parameters, improving accuracy of predictions.

Habitat filtering and niche differentiation jointly explain species relative abundance within grassland communities along fertility and disturbance gradients.

Deterministic niche-based processes have been proposed to explain species relative abundance within communities but lead to different predictions: habitat filtering (HF) predicts dominant species to exhibit similar traits while niche differentiation (ND) requires that species have dissimilar traits to coexist. Using a multiple trait-based approach, we evaluated the relative roles of HF and ND in determining species abundances in productive grasslands. Four dimensions of the functional niche of 12 co-occurring grass species were identified using 28 plant functional traits. Using this description of the species niche, we investigated patterns of functional similarity and dissimilarity and linked them to abundance in randomly assembled six-species communities subjected to fertilization/disturbance treatments. Our results suggest that HF and ND jointly determined species abundance by acting on contrasting niche dimensions. The effect of HF decreased relative to ND with increasing disturbance and decreasing fertilization. Dominant species exhibited similar traits in communities whereas dissimilarity favored the coexistence of rare species with dominants by decreasing inter-specific competition. This stabilizing effect on diversity was suggested by a negative relationship between species over-yielding and relative abundance. We discuss the importance of considering independent dimensions of functional niche to better understand species abundance and coexistence within communities.

Impacts of species interactions on grass community productivity under contrasting management regimes.

Productivity-diversity relationships are routinely described mainly in terms of species richness. However, these relationships can be affected by the functional strategy and physiological plasticity characterizing each species as they respond to environment and management changes. This study, therefore, aimed to analyze species interactions in grass communities presenting the same number of species (n = 6) but different growth strategies, and the impact on community productivity across several forms of field management (two different fertilizer application rates, i.e. 120 and 360 kg N ha(-1) year(-1), and two cutting frequencies, i.e. 3 and 6 cuts per year). For this purpose, we applied the tripartite partitioning method introduced for the analysis of biodiversity effects (BE). Grass species were cultivated on small plots (4.2 m(2)) in both mixtures and monocultures. Different management regimes altered both net BE and its component effects: dominance and potential for complementarity. A higher cutting frequency significantly reduced net BE, via a reduction in dominance effect. We found that increased N supply could either increase or decrease complementary effect according to grass mixture composition, i.e. species strategy. Regardless of management intensity, net BE was in general significantly positive especially when including individual species-specific plasticity effects. We conclude that a combination of different grasses has a positive effect on community biomass. Furthermore, both the functional strategy and the functional plasticity of component species play an important role in the intensity of BE. Therefore, biological mechanisms leading to enhanced biomass in six-grass communities are as effective for productivity as management conditions.

The role of plant traits and their plasticity in the response of pasture grasses to nutrients and cutting frequency.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Although plant functional traits (PFTs) appear to be important indicators of species' responses to land use changes, there is no clear understanding of how the variations in traits and their plasticity determine variations in species performance. This study investigated the role of functional shoot traits and their plasticity for variation in above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) due to changes in N supply and in cutting frequency for 13 native perennial C(3) grass species. METHODS: Monocultures of the grass species were grown in a fully factorial block design combining plant species, cutting frequency and N supply as factors. KEY RESULTS: Four major trait associations were obtained by reducing the dimensions of 14 PFTs with a principal component analysis (PCA).Variations in species' productivity in response to an increase in cutting frequency was mainly explained by traits linked to the first PCA axis, opposing high plant stature from lower shoot cellulose and lignin contents and high leaf N content. Variation in species productivity in response to change in N supply was mainly explained by a set of predictor variables combining traits (average flowering date) and a trait's plasticity (tiller density per unit land area and leaf dry matter content, i.e. mg dry matter g fresh mass(-1)). These traits involved are linked to the second PCA axis ('nutrient acquisition-conservation'), which opposes distinct strategies based on response to nutrient supply. CONCLUSIONS: Variations in ANPP of species in response to an increase in cutting frequency and a decrease in N supply are controlled by a group of traits, rather than by one individual trait. Incorporating plasticity of the individual traits into these trait combinations was the key to explaining species' productivity responses, accounting for up to 89 % of the total variability in response to the changes in N supply.

Effects of management regime and plant species on the enzyme activity and genetic structure of N-fixing, denitrifying and nitrifying bacterial communities in grassland soils.

Management by combined grazing and mowing events is commonly used in grasslands, which influences the activity and composition of soil bacterial communities. Whether observed effects are mediated by management-induced disturbances, or indirectly by changes in the identity of major plant species, is still unknown. To address this issue, we quantified substrate-induced respiration (SIR), and the nitrification, denitrification and free-living N(2)-fixation enzyme activities below grass tufts of three major plant species (Holcus lanatus, Arrhenatherum elatius and Dactylis glomerata) in extensively or intensively managed grasslands. The genetic structures of eubacterial, ammonia oxidizing, nitrate reducing, and free-living N(2)-fixing communities were also characterized by ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis, and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) or restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) targeting group-specific genes. SIR was not influenced by management and plant species, whereas denitrification enzyme activity was influenced only by plant species, and management-plant species interactions were observed for fixation and nitrification enzyme activities. Changes in nitrification enzyme activity were likely largely explained by the observed changes in ammonium concentration, whereas N availability was not a major factor explaining changes in denitrification and fixation enzyme activities. The structures of eubacterial and free-living N(2)-fixing communities were essentially controlled by management, whereas the diversity of nitrate reducers and ammonia oxidizers depended on both management and plant species. For each functional group, changes in enzyme activity were not correlated or were weakly correlated to overall changes in genetic structure, but around 60% of activity variance was correlated to changes in five RFLP or DGGE bands. Although our conclusions should be tested for other ecosystems and seasons, these results show that predicting microbial changes induced by management in grasslands requires consideration of management-plant species interactions.