Warmer Temperature and Spatiotemporal Dynamics during Primary Succession on Tropical Coastal Dunes.

Coastal dunes are sensitive indicators of climate change: it is expected that higher precipitation and warmer temperature will promote vegetation growth and sand stabilization. Alternatively, dunes may become active during severe droughts, which would reduce plant cover and increase sand mobility. Consequently, it is relevant to explore community shifts and self-organization processes to better understand how coastal dunes vegetation will respond to these projected changes. Primary succession allows the exploration of community assembly and reorganization processes. We focused on three environmental variables (bare sand, temperature, and precipitation) and five successional groups (facilitators, colonizers, sand binders, nucleators, and competitors). For 25 years (from 1991 to 2016), species turnover was monitored in 150 permanent plots (4 × 4 m) placed on an initially mobile dune system located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The spatiotemporal dynamics observed during primary succession were consistent with the facilitation nucleation model. As late colonizers grew and expanded, psammophytes became locally extinct. The spatial patterns revealed that ecological succession did not occur evenly on the dunes. In addition, the increased mean yearly temperature during the last decades seemed to be associated with the accelerated increment in plant cover and species richness, which had not been registered before in Mexico.

Inoculum handling alters the strength and direction of plant-microbe interactions.

The pooling of soil samples in plant-microbe interaction studies is commonly employed, but the impact of sample handling has rarely been explored experimentally. Concerns have been raised that sample pooling may reduce biological variation leading to inflated type I errors or may alter the magnitude of microbial effects observed, invalidating the results achieved. To assess the impact of inocula pooling on plant-microbe interactions, we examined the reciprocal influence of unpooled and pooled soil microbial inocula on growth of Solidago altissima and Schizachyrium scoparium, with and without inoculum sterilization. Soil pooling had no effect on the variance among replicates in either plant species. However, pooling dramatically altered the magnitude and direction of microbial impacts on plant performance. Pooling of Solidago altissima soil increased the antagonistic effects on growth of both target species. In contrast, pooling of Schizachyrium scoparium soil shifted impacts on Solidago altissima from effectively neutral to slightly positive. Pooling in this system altered both the strength and direction of plant-microbe interactions relative to unpooled soils. Therefore soil mixing should be avoided when the research goal is to determine naturally occurring interaction strengths, even within a single habitat.

A native plant competitor mediates the impact of above- and belowground damage on an invasive tree.

Plant competition may mediate the impacts of herbivory on invasive plant species through effects on plant growth and defense. This may predictably depend on whether herbivory occurs above or below ground and on relative plant competitive ability. We simulated the potential impact of above- or belowground damage by biocontrol agents on the growth of a woody invader (Chinese tallow tree, Triadica sebifera) through artificial herbivory, with or without competition with a native grass, little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). We measured two defense responses of Triadica through quantifying constitutive and induced extrafloral nectar production and tolerance of above- and belowground damage (root and shoot biomass regrowth). We examined genetic variation in plant growth and defense across native (China) and invasive (United States) Triadica populations. Without competition, aboveground damage had a greater impact than belowground damage on Triadica performance, whereas with competition and above- and belowground damage impacted Triadica similarly. Whole plant tolerance to damage below ground was negatively associated with tolerance to grass competitors indicating tradeoffs in the ability to tolerate herbivory vs. compete. Competition reduced investment in defensive extrafloral nectar (EFN) production. Aboveground damage inhibited rather than induced EFN production while belowground plant damage did not impact aboveground nectar production. We found some support for the evolution of increased competitive ability hypothesis for invasive plants as United States plants were larger than native China plants and were more plastic in their response to biotic stressors than China plants (they altered their root to shoot ratios dependent on herbivory and competition treatments). Our results indicate that habitat type and the presence of competitors may be a larger determinant of herbivory impact than feeding mode and suggest that integrated pest management strategies including competitive dynamics of recipient communities should be incorporated into biological control agent evaluation at earlier stages.

Increased rainfall variability and N addition accelerate litter decomposition in a restored prairie.

Anthropogenic nitrogen deposition and projected increases in rainfall variability (the frequency of drought and heavy rainfall events) are expected to strongly influence ecosystem processes such as litter decomposition. However, how these two global change factors interact to influence litter decomposition is largely unknown. I examined how increased rainfall variability and nitrogen addition affected mass and nitrogen loss of litter from two tallgrass prairie species, Schizachyrium scoparium and Solidago canadensis, and isolated the effects of each during plant growth and during litter decomposition. I increased rainfall variability by consolidating ambient rainfall into larger events and simulated chronic nitrogen deposition using a slow-release urea fertilizer. S. scoparium litter decay was more strongly regulated by the treatments applied during plant growth than by those applied during decomposition. During plant growth, increased rainfall variability resulted in S. scoparium litter that subsequently decomposed more slowly and immobilized more nitrogen than litter grown under ambient conditions, whereas nitrogen addition during plant growth accelerated subsequent mass loss of S. scoparium litter. In contrast, S. canadensis litter mass and N losses were enhanced under either N addition or increased rainfall variability both during plant growth and during decomposition. These results suggest that ongoing changes in rainfall variability and nitrogen availability are accelerating nutrient cycling in tallgrass prairies through their combined effects on litter quality, environmental conditions, and plant community composition.

Plants retard litter decay in a nutrient-limited soil: a case of exploitative competition?

Litter was incubated in pasteurized and unpasteurized soils, with and without the presence of prairie grasses (Bouteloua gracilis or Schizachyrium scoparium), to determine if competition between plants and saprophytes altered rates of litter decay. A soil pasteurization treatment was included to ascertain if the presence of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae inocula would affect the competitive interaction. Analyses of variance detected significant effects (P<0.5) of soil pasteurization, plant species and litter presence on root mass, and significant effects of plant species and litter presence on shoot and total plant mass. The degree of mycorrhizal colonization varied little between plant species but mycorrhizae were entirely absent in pasteurized soils; soil pasteurization usually reduced plant growth. Analyses of covariance detected (1) a highly significant negative relationship (P<0.01) between litter mass loss and plant growth (as covariates), when controlling for the effects of time, and (2) a significant positive relationship (P<0.05) between litter nitrogen content and mass loss (as covariates), when controlling for the effects of time and soil pasteurization. These relationships would be expected if exploitative competition for nutrients existed between plants and decomposers such that nutrient uptake by plants reduced concomitant litter decay.

Elevated carbon dioxide ameliorates the effects of ozone on photosynthesis and growth: species respond similarly regardless of photosynthetic pathway or plant functional group.

Due to their different physiological effects, elevated carbon dioxide and elevated ozone might have interactive impacts on plants, and differentially so on plants differing in photosynthetic pathway and growth rate. To test several hypotheses related to these issues, we examined the physiological, morphological and growth responses of six perennial species grown at various atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and ozone. The species involved (two C3 trees: Populus tremuloides Michx., Quercus rubra L.; two C3 grasses: Agropyron smithii Rybd., Koeleria cristata L.; two C4 grasses: Bouteloua curtipendula Michx., Schizachyrium scoparium Michx.) differed in growth form, stomatal conductance and photosynthetic pathway. In situ photosynthesis, relative growth rate (RGR) and its determinants (leaf area ratio, specific leaf area, leaf weight ratio and root weight ratio) were determined via sequential harvests of seedlings that were grown in all combinations of 366 or 672 µmol mol-1 CO2 and 3 or 95 nmol mol-1 O3 over a 101-d period. Elevated CO2 had minimal effect on either photosynthesis or RGR. By contrast, RGR for all six species was lower in high O3 concentrations at ambient CO2 , significantly so in A. smithii and P. tremuloides. Five of the six species also exhibited reductions in in situ photosynthesis at ambient CO2 in high-O3 -grown compared with low-O3 -grown plants. For all species, these O3 -induced reductions in RGR and photosynthesis were absent in the elevated CO2 environment. Root weight ratio was significantly reduced by elevated O3 in A. smithii and P. tremuloides in ambient but not elevated CO2 . Species with high stomatal conductance were the most susceptible to oxidant injury, while those with low stomatal conductance, such as the C4 species and Q. rubra, were not as detrimentally affected by O3 . Elevated levels of CO2 will reduce stomatal conductance and O3 uptake, and might therefore reduce the potential for oxidant damage. However, there was a stronger relationship of the percent reduction in whole-plant mass due to O3 , related to the ratio of photosynthesis to stomatal conductance. In general, results of this study of six functionally diverse plant species suggest that O3 pollution effects on carbon balance and growth are likely to be ameliorated by elevated concentrations of atmospheric CO2 .

Density-dependent regulation of ramet recruitment by the red:far-red ratio of solar radiation: a field evaluation with the bunchgrass Schizachyrium scoparium.

Depressions in the red to far-red ratio (R:FR) of solar radiation arising from the selective absorption of R (600-700 nm) and scattering of FR (700-800 nm) by chlorophyll within plant canopies may function as an environmental signal directly regulating axillary bud growth and subsequent ramet recruitment in clonal plants. We tested this hypothesis in the field within a single cohort of parental ramets in established clones of the perennial bunchgrass, Schizachyrium scoparium. The R:FR was modified near leaf sheaths and axillary buds at the bases of individual ramets throughout the photoperiod without increasing photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) by either (1) supplementing R beneath canopies to raise the naturally low R:FR or (2) supplementing FR beneath partially defoliated canopies to suppress the natural R:FR increase following defoliation. Treatment responses were assessed by simultaneously monitoring ramet recruitment, PPFD and the R:FR beneath individual clone canopies at biweekly intervals over a 12-week period. Neither supplemental R nor FR influenced the rate or magnitude of ramet recruitment despite the occurrence of ramet recruitment in all experimental clones. In contrast, defoliation with or without supplemental FR beneath clone canopies reduced ramet recruitment 88% by the end of the experiment. The hypothesis stating that the R:FR signal directly regulates ramet recruitment is further weakened by evidence demonstrating that (1) the low R:FR-induced suppression of ramet recruitment is only one component of several architectural modifications exhibited by ramets in response to the R:FR signal (2) immature leaf blades, rather than leaf sheaths or buds, function as sites of R:FR perception on individual ramets, and (3) increases in the R:FR at clone bases following partial canopy removal are relatively transient and do not override the associated constraints on ramet recruitment resulting from defoliation. A depressed R:FR is probably of greater ecological significance as a signal of competition for light in vegetation canopies than as a density-dependent signal which directly regulates bud growth and ramet recruitment.

Little bluestem litter dynamics in Minnesota old fields.

We studied the decay and nitrogen dynamics of little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) litter in fertilized and unfertilized Minnesota old fields, using the litterbag technique. Annual decay rates and nitrogen leaching losses during the first month of decay were highly correlated with N content of litter and not with fertilizer additions. After the first month of decay, nitrogen was immobilized for at least 18 months. In contrast to decay rates and early N leaching losses, these immobilization rates were correlated with the amount of ammonium nitrate added in fertilizer rather than with initial %N. Therefore, litter quality and exogenous nitrogen supply appear to have different and independent effects on decay rates and N dynamics of little bluestem litter.

Nitrogen-15 partitioning within a three generation tiller sequence of the bunchgrass Schizachyrium scoparium: response to selective defoliation.

Nitrogen partitioning among three generations of tillers within the bunchgrass Schizachyrium scoparium var. frequens was investigated in a controlled environment as a potential mechanism of herbivory tolerance. Nitrogen-15 was transported from the labelled primary tiller generation to both shoots and roots of nondefoliated secondary and tertiary tiller generations within 24 h. Partial defoliation increased shoot nitrogen concentration of secondary and tertiary generation tillers by 110 and 120%, respectively, 24 h following defoliation. Shoot nitrogen concentration was preferentially increased by partial defoliation of tertiary generation tillers throughout the 120 h experimental period, but diminished to concentrations comparable to nondefoliated tillers within shoots of the secondary generation at 72 h. In contrast to nitrogen concentration, the total amount of nitrogen imported by secondary and tertiary generation tillers decreased 62 and 73%, respectively, 24 h following partial defoliation and did not attain values comparable to respective nondefoliated tillers. Consequently, preferential nitrogen concentration occurred in response to partial tiller defoliation without an increase in total nitrogen import based on the reduction in the total nitrogen requirement per tiller generation associated with defoliation. Estimates of both the total amount of nitrogen import and nitrogen concentration are necessary to accurately interpret the dynamics of intertiller nitrogen allocation.