10.5061/DRYAD.QRFJ6Q5FN
Dietrich, Peter
0000-0002-7742-6064
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
Eisenhauer, Nico
0000-0002-0371-6720
German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research
Otto, Peter
Leipzig University
Roscher, Christiane
0000-0001-9301-7909
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
Plant history and soil history jointly influence the selection environment
for plant species in a long‐term grassland biodiversity experiment
Dryad
dataset
2021
diversity-productivity relationship
eco-evolutionary feedbacks
micro-evolution
transplant experiment
Jena Experiment
Nature and Landscape Conservation
Ecology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
FOS: Biological sciences
Heinrich Böll Stiftung
https://ror.org/01vneh441
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
https://ror.org/018mejw64
FOR 1451
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
https://ror.org/018mejw64
FZT 118
2022-05-10T00:00:00Z
2021-06-07T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7647
81908 bytes
7
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Long-term biodiversity experiments have shown increasing strengths of
biodiversity effects on plant productivity over time. However, little is
known about rapid evolutionary processes in response to plant community
diversity, which could contribute to explaining the strengthening positive
relationship. To address this issue, we performed a transplant experiment
with offspring of seeds collected from four grass species in a 14-year old
biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment). We used two- and six-species
communities and removed the vegetation of the study plots to exclude
plant-plant interactions. In a reciprocal design, we transplanted five
“home” phytometers (same origin and actual environment), five “away-same”
phytometers (same species richness of origin and actual environment, but
different plant composition), and five “away-different” phytometers
(different species richness of origin and actual environment) of the same
species in the study plots. In the establishment year, plants transplanted
in home soil produced more shoots than plants in away soil indicating that
plant populations at low and high diversity developed differently over
time depending on their associated soil community and/or conditions. In
the second year, offspring of individuals selected at high diversity
generally had a higher performance (biomass production and fitness) than
offspring of individuals selected at low diversity, regardless of the
transplant environment. This suggests that plants at low and high
diversity showed rapid evolutionary responses measurable in their
phenotype. Our findings provide first empirical evidence that loss of
productivity at low diversity is not only caused by changes in abiotic and
biotic conditions but also that plants respond to this by a change in
their micro-evolution. Thus, we conclude that eco-evolutionary feedbacks
of plants at low and high diversity are critical to fully understand why
the positive influence of diversity on plant productivity is strengthening
through time.
Data_performance, functional traits, infestation This file contains
measures of performance (shoot number, biomass production,
inflorescences), leaf functional traits and leaf infestation of
phytometers transplanted in low- and high-diversity communities of a
grassland biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment). All abbreviations of
variable names are explained in the data file. Data_survival Poa trivialis
This file contains measures of survival of Poa trivialis phytometers
transplanted in low- and high-diversity communities of a grassland
biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment). All abbreviations of variable
names are explained in the data file.