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ARS Home » Plains Area » Temple, Texas » Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #351095
Title: Spatial heterogeneity in species composition constrains plant community responses to herbivory and fertilisation

Author
item HODAPP, DOROTHEE - Helmholtz Centre
item BORER, ELIZABETH - University Of Minnesota
item HARPOLE, W - Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research
item LIND, ERIC - German Centre For Integrative Biodiversity Research (IDIV)
item SEABLOOM, ERIC - University Of Minnesota
item ADLER, PETER - Utah State University
item ALBERTI, JUAN - Instituto De Botánica Del Nordeste
item ARNILLAS, CARLOS - University Of Toronto
item BAKKER, JONATHAN - University Of Washington
item BIEDERMAN, LORI - Iowa State University
item CADOTTE, MARC - University Of Toronto
item CLELAND, ELSA - University Of California
item COLLINS, SCOTT - University Of New Mexico
item Fay, Philip
item FIRN, JENNIFER - Queensland University Of Technology
item HAGENAH, NICOLE - University Of Pretoria
item HAUTIER, YANN - Independent Ecological Researcher
item IRIBARNE, OSCAR - Instituto Aragone' S De Ciencias De La Salud
item KNOPS, JOHANNES - University Of Nebraska
item MCCULLEY, REBECCA - University Of Kentucky
item MACDOUGALL, ANDREW - University Of Guelph
item MOORE, JOSLIN - Monash University
item MORGAN, JOHN - La Trobe University
item MORTENSEN, BRENT - Benedictine University Of Illinois
item LA PIERRE, KIMBERLY - Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
item RISCH, ANITA - Swiss Federal Research Institute Wsl
item SCHUTZ, MARTIN - Swiss Federal Research Institute Wsl
item PERI, PABLO - Consejo Nacional De Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas(CONICET)
item STEVENS, CARLY - Lancaster University
item WRIGHT, JUSTIN - Duke University
item HILLEBRAND, HELMUT - Carl von Ossietzky University Of Oldenburg

Submitted to: Ecology Letters
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/20/2018
Publication Date: 6/27/2018
Citation: Hodapp, D., Borer, E.T., Harpole, W.S., Lind, E.M., Seabloom, E.W., Adler, P.B., Alberti, J., Arnillas, C.A., Bakker, J.D., Biederman, L., Cadotte, M., Cleland, E.E., Collins, S., Fay, P.A., Firn, J., Hagenah, N., Hautier, Y., Iribarne, O., Knops, J.M., McCulley, R.L., MacDougall, A., Moore, J.L., Morgan, J., Mortensen, B., La Pierre, K.J., Risch, A.C., Schutz, M., Peri, P., Stevens, C.J., Wright, J., Hillebrand, H. 2018. Spatial heterogeneity in species composition constrains plant community responses to herbivory and fertilisation. Ecology Letters. 21:1364-1371. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13102.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13102

Interpretive Summary: Biodiversity, the number and abundance of species in ecosystems, plays a critical role in making the functional processes operating in ecosystems stable through time, and therefore stable in the provision of services that those functions provide. Given expected future global change, being able to understand and predict the consequences for future ecosystem biodiversity is crucial to maintaining those services. This paper addresses the consequences of changes in nutrient inputs (via fertilization) and grazing, two major elements of global change, on biodiversity in a global network of over 40 grassland sites conducting an identical fertilization/herbivore exclusion experiment. The paper addresses a critical basic question - how much do changes in plant biodiversity following fertilization or herbivore exclusion depend on the pre-existing level of plant biodiversity prior to the experiment. The results showed that indeed, sites with higher pre-existing biodiversity tended to show larger changes in biodiversity with fertilization and herbivore exclusion. Evaluation of ecosystem responses to global changes therefore need to account for initial starting conditions, and sites with higher biodiversity may show greater functional change in response to changes in nutrient inputs or herbivore pressure, with potentially greater consequences for ecosystem services provision.

Technical Abstract: Changing environmental conditions result in substantial shifts in the composition of communities. The associated immigration and extinction events are likely constrained by the spatial distribution of species. Still, most studies on environmental change quantify the biotic responses at single spatial (time series within a single plot) or temporal (spatial beta-diversity at single time points) scales, ignoring their potential interdependence. Here, we use data from a global network of grassland experiments to determine the dependence of temporal community turnover (separated into changes in species richness and species replacement) on species pool size and spatial compositional differences across plots, and examine the influence of fertilization and herbivore exclusion on these relationships. Sites with more spatially heterogeneous communities showed significantly higher rates of annual turnover in control and treatment plots independent of species pool size. Integrating spatial aspects of biodiversity will improve our understanding of consequences of global and anthropogenic change on community dynamics.