@article {96101, title = {Negative effects of nitrogen override positive effects of phosphorus on grassland legumes worldwide.}, journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A}, volume = {118}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jul 13}, abstract = {

Anthropogenic nutrient enrichment is driving global biodiversity decline and modifying ecosystem functions. Theory suggests that plant functional types that fix atmospheric nitrogen have a competitive advantage in nitrogen-poor soils, but lose this advantage with increasing nitrogen supply. By contrast, the addition of phosphorus, potassium, and other nutrients may benefit such species in low-nutrient environments by enhancing their nitrogen-fixing capacity. We present a global-scale experiment confirming these predictions for nitrogen-fixing legumes (Fabaceae) across 45 grasslands on six continents. Nitrogen addition reduced legume cover, richness, and biomass, particularly in nitrogen-poor soils, while cover of non-nitrogen-fixing plants increased. The addition of phosphorous, potassium, and other nutrients enhanced legume abundance, but did not mitigate the negative effects of nitrogen addition. Increasing nitrogen supply thus has the potential to decrease the diversity and abundance of grassland legumes worldwide regardless of the availability of other nutrients, with consequences for biodiversity, food webs, ecosystem resilience, and genetic improvement of protein-rich agricultural plant species.

}, issn = {1091-6490}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.2023718118}, author = {Tognetti, Pedro M and Prober, Suzanne M and B{\'a}ez, Selene and Chaneton, Enrique J and Firn, Jennifer and Risch, Anita C and Schuetz, Martin and Simonsen, Anna K and Yahdjian, Laura and Borer, Elizabeth T and Seabloom, Eric W and Arnillas, Carlos Alberto and Bakker, Jonathan D and Brown, Cynthia S and Cadotte, Marc W and Caldeira, Maria C and Daleo, Pedro and Dwyer, John M and Fay, Philip A and Gherardi, Laureano A and Hagenah, Nicole and Hautier, Yann and Komatsu, Kimberly J and McCulley, Rebecca L and Price, Jodi N and Standish, Rachel J and Stevens, Carly J and Wragg, Peter D and Sankaran, Mahesh} } @article {27277, title = {Local loss and spatial homogenization of plant diversity reduce ecosystem multifunctionality.}, journal = {Nat Ecol Evol}, volume = {2}, year = {2018}, month = {2017 Dec 04}, pages = {50-56}, abstract = {

Biodiversity is declining in many local communities while also becoming increasingly homogenized across space. Experiments show that local plant species loss reduces ecosystem functioning and services, but the role of spatial homogenization of community composition and the potential interaction between diversity at different scales in maintaining ecosystem functioning remains unclear, especially when many functions are considered (ecosystem multifunctionality). We present an analysis of eight ecosystem functions measured in 65 grasslands worldwide. We find that more diverse grasslands-those with both species-rich local communities (α-diversity) and large compositional differences among localities (β-diversity)-had higher levels of multifunctionality. Moreover, α- and β-diversity synergistically affected multifunctionality, with higher levels of diversity at one scale amplifying the contribution to ecological functions at the other scale. The identity of species influencing ecosystem functioning differed among functions and across local communities, explaining why more diverse grasslands maintained greater functionality when more functions and localities were considered. These results were robust to variation in environmental drivers. Our findings reveal that plant diversity, at both local and landscape scales, contributes to the maintenance of multiple ecosystem services provided by grasslands. Preserving ecosystem functioning therefore requires conservation of biodiversity both within and among ecological communities.

}, issn = {2397-334X}, doi = {10.1038/s41559-017-0395-0}, author = {Hautier, Yann and Isbell, Forest and Borer, Elizabeth T and Seabloom, Eric W and Harpole, W Stanley and Lind, Eric M and MacDougall, Andrew S and Stevens, Carly J and Adler, Peter B and Alberti, Juan and Bakker, Jonathan D and Brudvig, Lars A and Buckley, Yvonne M and Cadotte, Marc and Caldeira, Maria C and Chaneton, Enrique J and Chu, Chengjin and Daleo, Pedro and Dickman, Christopher R and Dwyer, John M and Eskelinen, Anu and Fay, Philip A and Firn, Jennifer and Hagenah, Nicole and Hillebrand, Helmut and Iribarne, Oscar and Kirkman, Kevin P and Knops, Johannes M H and La Pierre, Kimberly J and McCulley, Rebecca L and Morgan, John W and P{\"a}rtel, Meelis and Pascual, Jesus and Price, Jodi N and Prober, Suzanne M and Risch, Anita C and Sankaran, Mahesh and Schuetz, Martin and Standish, Rachel J and Virtanen, Risto and Wardle, Glenda M and Yahdjian, Laura and Hector, Andy} } @article {998, title = {Plant species{\textquoteright} origin predicts dominance and response to nutrient enrichment and herbivores in global grasslands.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {7710}, abstract = {

Exotic species dominate many communities; however the functional significance of species{\textquoteright} biogeographic origin remains highly contentious. This debate is fuelled in part by the lack of globally replicated, systematic data assessing the relationship between species provenance, function and response to perturbations. We examined the abundance of native and exotic plant species at 64 grasslands in 13 countries, and at a subset of the sites we experimentally tested native and exotic species responses to two fundamental drivers of invasion, mineral nutrient supplies and vertebrate herbivory. Exotic species are six times more likely to dominate communities than native species. Furthermore, while experimental nutrient addition increases the cover and richness of exotic species, nutrients decrease native diversity and cover. Native and exotic species also differ in their response to vertebrate consumer exclusion. These results suggest that species origin has functional significance, and that eutrophication will lead to increased exotic dominance in grasslands.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms8710}, author = {Seabloom, Eric W and Borer, Elizabeth T and Buckley, Yvonne M and Cleland, Elsa E and Davies, Kendi F and Firn, Jennifer and Harpole, W Stanley and Hautier, Yann and Lind, Eric M and MacDougall, Andrew S and Orrock, John L and Prober, Suzanne M and Adler, Peter B and Anderson, T Michael and Bakker, Jonathan D and Biederman, Lori A and Blumenthal, Dana M and Brown, Cynthia S and Brudvig, Lars A and Cadotte, Marc and Chu, Chengjin and Cottingham, Kathryn L and Crawley, Michael J and Damschen, Ellen I and Dantonio, Carla M and DeCrappeo, Nicole M and Du, Guozhen and Fay, Philip A and Frater, Paul and Gruner, Daniel S and Hagenah, Nicole and Hector, Andy and Hillebrand, Helmut and Hofmockel, Kirsten S and Humphries, Hope C and Jin, Virginia L and Kay, Adam and Kirkman, Kevin P and Klein, Julia A and Knops, Johannes M H and La Pierre, Kimberly J and Ladwig, Laura and Lambrinos, John G and Li, Qi and Li, Wei and Marushia, Robin and McCulley, Rebecca L and Melbourne, Brett A and Mitchell, Charles E and Moore, Joslin L and Morgan, John and Mortensen, Brent and O{\textquoteright}Halloran, Lydia R and Pyke, David A and Risch, Anita C and Sankaran, Mahesh and Schuetz, Martin and Simonsen, Anna and Smith, Melinda D and Stevens, Carly J and Sullivan, Lauren and Wolkovich, Elizabeth and Wragg, Peter D and Wright, Justin and Yang, Louie} }