Effects of plant functional group removal on structure and function of soil communities across contrasting ecosystems

• Published in: Ecology Letters
• Main Authors: Fanin, Nicolas, Kardol, Paul, Farrell, Mark, Kempel, Anne, Ciobanu, Marcel, Nilsson, Marie‐charlotte, Gundale, Michael J., Wardle, David A.
• Other Authors: Interactions Sol Plante Atmosphère (UMR ISPA), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Sciences Agronomiques de Bordeaux-Aquitaine (Bordeaux Sciences Agro), Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences = Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), Agriculture & Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Canberra (CSIRO), Institute of Plant Sciences, Universität Bern = University of Bern = Université de Berne (UNIBE), Institute of Biological Research, National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, Asian School of the Environment (ASE), Nanyang Technological University Singapour
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02629183; https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13266

International audience Loss of plant diversity has an impact on ecosystems worldwide, but we lack a mechanistic understanding of how this loss may influence below‐ground biota and ecosystem functions across contrasting ecosystems in the long term. We used the longest running biodiversity manipulation experiment across contrasting ecosystems in existence to explore the below‐ground consequences of 19 years of plant functional group removals for each of 30 contrasting forested lake islands in northern Sweden. We found that, against expectations, the effects of plant removals on the communities of key groups of soil organisms (bacteria, fungi and nematodes), and organic matter quality and soil ecosystem functioning (decomposition and microbial activity) were relatively similar among islands that varied greatly in productivity and soil fertility. This highlights that, in contrast to what has been shown for plant productivity, plant biodiversity loss effects on below‐ground functions can be relatively insensitive to environmental context or variation among widely contrasting ecosystems.