Belowground impacts of alpine woody encroachment are determined by plant traits, local climate, and soil conditions
Global climate and land use change are causing woody plant encroachment in arctic, alpine, and arid/semi-arid ecosystems around the world, yet our understanding of the belowground impacts of this phenomenon is limited. We conducted a globally distributed field study of 13 alpine sites across four co...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt89c460tv 2024-01-14T10:04:59+01:00 Belowground impacts of alpine woody encroachment are determined by plant traits, local climate, and soil conditions Collins, Courtney G Spasojevic, Marko J Alados, Concepción L Aronson, Emma L Benavides, Juan C Cannone, Nicoletta Caviezel, Chatrina Grau, Oriol Guo, Hui Kudo, Gaku Kuhn, Nikolas J Müllerová, Jana Phillips, Michala L Pombubpa, Nuttapon Reverchon, Frédérique Shulman, Hannah B Stajich, Jason E Stokes, Alexia Weber, Sören E Diez, Jeffrey M 7112 - 7127 2020-12-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/89c460tv unknown eScholarship, University of California qt89c460tv https://escholarship.org/uc/item/89c460tv CC-BY-NC-ND Global Change Biology, vol 26, iss 12 Biological Sciences Ecology Life Below Water Climate Ecosystem Nitrogen Plants Soil alpine global change leaf traits plant-soil interactions soil microbes woody encroachment Environmental Sciences Earth sciences article 2020 ftcdlib 2023-12-18T19:07:09Z Global climate and land use change are causing woody plant encroachment in arctic, alpine, and arid/semi-arid ecosystems around the world, yet our understanding of the belowground impacts of this phenomenon is limited. We conducted a globally distributed field study of 13 alpine sites across four continents undergoing woody plant encroachment and sampled soils from both woody encroached and nearby herbaceous plant community types. We found that woody plant encroachment influenced soil microbial richness and community composition across sites based on multiple factors including woody plant traits, site level climate, and abiotic soil conditions. In particular, root symbiont type was a key determinant of belowground effects, as Nitrogen-fixing woody plants had higher soil fungal richness, while Ecto/Ericoid mycorrhizal species had higher soil bacterial richness and symbiont types had distinct soil microbial community composition. Woody plant leaf traits indirectly influenced soil microbes through their impact on soil abiotic conditions, primarily soil pH and C:N ratios. Finally, site-level climate affected the overall magnitude and direction of woody plant influence, as soil fungal and bacterial richness were either higher or lower in woody encroached versus herbaceous soils depending on mean annual temperature and precipitation. All together, these results document global impacts of woody plant encroachment on soil microbial communities, but highlight that multiple biotic and abiotic pathways must be considered to scale up globally from site- and species-level patterns. Considering both the aboveground and belowground effects of woody encroachment will be critical to predict future changes in alpine ecosystem structure and function and subsequent feedbacks to the global climate system. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic University of California: eScholarship Arctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Biological Sciences Ecology Life Below Water Climate Ecosystem Nitrogen Plants Soil alpine global change leaf traits plant-soil interactions soil microbes woody encroachment Environmental Sciences Earth sciences |
spellingShingle |
Biological Sciences Ecology Life Below Water Climate Ecosystem Nitrogen Plants Soil alpine global change leaf traits plant-soil interactions soil microbes woody encroachment Environmental Sciences Earth sciences Collins, Courtney G Spasojevic, Marko J Alados, Concepción L Aronson, Emma L Benavides, Juan C Cannone, Nicoletta Caviezel, Chatrina Grau, Oriol Guo, Hui Kudo, Gaku Kuhn, Nikolas J Müllerová, Jana Phillips, Michala L Pombubpa, Nuttapon Reverchon, Frédérique Shulman, Hannah B Stajich, Jason E Stokes, Alexia Weber, Sören E Diez, Jeffrey M Belowground impacts of alpine woody encroachment are determined by plant traits, local climate, and soil conditions |
topic_facet |
Biological Sciences Ecology Life Below Water Climate Ecosystem Nitrogen Plants Soil alpine global change leaf traits plant-soil interactions soil microbes woody encroachment Environmental Sciences Earth sciences |
description |
Global climate and land use change are causing woody plant encroachment in arctic, alpine, and arid/semi-arid ecosystems around the world, yet our understanding of the belowground impacts of this phenomenon is limited. We conducted a globally distributed field study of 13 alpine sites across four continents undergoing woody plant encroachment and sampled soils from both woody encroached and nearby herbaceous plant community types. We found that woody plant encroachment influenced soil microbial richness and community composition across sites based on multiple factors including woody plant traits, site level climate, and abiotic soil conditions. In particular, root symbiont type was a key determinant of belowground effects, as Nitrogen-fixing woody plants had higher soil fungal richness, while Ecto/Ericoid mycorrhizal species had higher soil bacterial richness and symbiont types had distinct soil microbial community composition. Woody plant leaf traits indirectly influenced soil microbes through their impact on soil abiotic conditions, primarily soil pH and C:N ratios. Finally, site-level climate affected the overall magnitude and direction of woody plant influence, as soil fungal and bacterial richness were either higher or lower in woody encroached versus herbaceous soils depending on mean annual temperature and precipitation. All together, these results document global impacts of woody plant encroachment on soil microbial communities, but highlight that multiple biotic and abiotic pathways must be considered to scale up globally from site- and species-level patterns. Considering both the aboveground and belowground effects of woody encroachment will be critical to predict future changes in alpine ecosystem structure and function and subsequent feedbacks to the global climate system. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Collins, Courtney G Spasojevic, Marko J Alados, Concepción L Aronson, Emma L Benavides, Juan C Cannone, Nicoletta Caviezel, Chatrina Grau, Oriol Guo, Hui Kudo, Gaku Kuhn, Nikolas J Müllerová, Jana Phillips, Michala L Pombubpa, Nuttapon Reverchon, Frédérique Shulman, Hannah B Stajich, Jason E Stokes, Alexia Weber, Sören E Diez, Jeffrey M |
author_facet |
Collins, Courtney G Spasojevic, Marko J Alados, Concepción L Aronson, Emma L Benavides, Juan C Cannone, Nicoletta Caviezel, Chatrina Grau, Oriol Guo, Hui Kudo, Gaku Kuhn, Nikolas J Müllerová, Jana Phillips, Michala L Pombubpa, Nuttapon Reverchon, Frédérique Shulman, Hannah B Stajich, Jason E Stokes, Alexia Weber, Sören E Diez, Jeffrey M |
author_sort |
Collins, Courtney G |
title |
Belowground impacts of alpine woody encroachment are determined by plant traits, local climate, and soil conditions |
title_short |
Belowground impacts of alpine woody encroachment are determined by plant traits, local climate, and soil conditions |
title_full |
Belowground impacts of alpine woody encroachment are determined by plant traits, local climate, and soil conditions |
title_fullStr |
Belowground impacts of alpine woody encroachment are determined by plant traits, local climate, and soil conditions |
title_full_unstemmed |
Belowground impacts of alpine woody encroachment are determined by plant traits, local climate, and soil conditions |
title_sort |
belowground impacts of alpine woody encroachment are determined by plant traits, local climate, and soil conditions |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/89c460tv |
op_coverage |
7112 - 7127 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Global Change Biology, vol 26, iss 12 |
op_relation |
qt89c460tv https://escholarship.org/uc/item/89c460tv |
op_rights |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
_version_ |
1788059406696448000 |