10.5061/DRYAD.DT3NM
de Vries, Franciska T.
University of Manchester
Bracht Jorgensen, Helene
Lund University
Hedlund, Katarina
Lund University
Bardgett, Richard D.
University of Manchester
Data from: Disentangling plant and soil microbial controls on carbon and
nitrogen loss in grassland mesocosms
Dryad
dataset
2016
Feedback
Microbial community
plant-soil (below-ground) interactions
plant community composition
2016-02-10T00:00:00Z
2016-02-10T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12383
123909 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
1. It is well known that plant–soil interactions play an important role in
determining the impact of global change phenomena on biodiversity and
ecosystem functioning. Little is known, however, about the individual and
relative importance for carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling of non-random
changes in plant and soil communities that result from global change
phenomena, such as fertilization and agricultural intensification. 2. We
set up a field-based mesocosm experiment in which we re-inoculated soil
with contrasting microbial communities taken from extensively managed and
from intensively managed grasslands. In a full-factorial design, we
subsequently established plant communities representative of intensively
and extensively managed grasslands and imposed a fertilization treatment.
We then measured plant biomass and diversity, and leaching of C and N as
key measures of C and N loss. 3. We hypothesized that non-random changes
in both microbial and plant communities would impact C and N leaching, but
via different mechanisms. We predicted that plant communities
representative of extensively managed grassland would reduce C and N
leaching directly through increased water or N uptake, or indirectly via
promoting microbial communities that immobilize C and N, whereas plant
communities of intensively managed grassland would have the opposite
effect. We also hypothesized that microbial communities of extensively
managed grassland would feed back positively to plant diversity and that
‘matching’ plant and microbial communities would reduce C and N leaching.
4. We found that both plant and microbial communities from extensively
managed grassland reduced C and N leaching, especially when ‘matched’.
Plant community effects on C and N leaching operated directly through root
C inputs and N uptake, rather than through changes in soil microbial
communities. In contrast, microbial communities modified C and N leaching
both directly by immobilization and indirectly through modifying plant
community composition. 5. Synthesis. Our results show that changes in
plant and microbial communities both individually and interactively modify
C and N loss from grasslands. Moreover, our results suggest that soil
microbial communities typical of extensively managed grassland might
counteract, or delay, the negative consequences of fertilization on plant
diversity and ecosystem functioning.
Soil and plants 2010Contains data for the first year of the experiment,
including soil analyses immediately after inoculation with microbial
communities but before planting with plant communities, total biomass data
for the first harvest (August 2010) and biomass data for all individual
species for the second harvest (October 2010). See ReadMe file for
variable names and descriptions.Soil and plants 2011Contains data for the
second and final year of the experiment. This includes all soil and
vegetation data for the final destructive harvest in October 2011. See
ReadMe file for names and description of variables.LeachatesThis file
contains leachate data for the mesocosms. Leachates were collected
non-destructively at 7 dates in 2011. See ReadMe file for names and
description of variables.PLFAsThis file contains PLFA profiles for
mesocosms, analysed in soil samples from the final destructive harvest on
October 2011. See ReadMe file for more information on this file.