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ARS Home » Plains Area » Temple, Texas » Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #356080
Title: Leaf nutrients, not specific leaf area, are consistent indicators of elevated nutrient inputs

Author
item FIRN, JENNIFER - Queensland University Of Technology
item MCGREE, JAMES - Queensland University Of Technology
item HARVEY, ERIC - University Of Toronto
item FLORES-MORENO, HABACUC - University Of Minnesota
item SCHUTZ, M - Swiss Federal Research Institute Wsl
item BUCKLEY, YVONNE - Trinity College
item BORER, ELIZABETH - University Of Minnesota
item SEABLOOM, ERIC - University Of Minnesota
item LA PIERRE, KIMBERLY - Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
item MACDOUGALL, ANDREW - University Of Guelph
item PROBER, SUZANNE - Csiro European Laboratory
item STEVENS, CARLY - Lancaster University
item SULLIVAN, LAUREN - University Of Minnesota
item PORTER, ERICA - Queensland University Of Technology
item LADOUCEUR, EMMA - German Centre For Integrative Biodiversity Research (IDIV)
item ALLEN, CHARLOTTE - Queensland University Of Technology
item MOROMIZATO, KARINE - Queensland University Of Technology
item MORGAN, JOHN - La Trobe University
item HARPOLE, W - Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research
item HAUTIER, YANN - Utrecht University
item EISENHAUER, NICO - German Centre For Integrative Biodiversity Research (IDIV)
item WRIGHT, JUSTIN - Duke University
item ADLER, PETER - Utah State University
item ARNILLAS, CARLOS - University Of Toronto
item BAKKER, JONATHON - University Of Washington
item BIEDERMAN, LORI - Iowa State University
item BROADBENT, ARTHUR - University Of Manchester
item BROWN, CYNTHIA - Colorado State University
item BUGALHO, MIGUEL - University Of Lisbon
item CALDEIRA, MARIA - University Of Lisbon
item CLELAND, ELSA - University Of California
item EBELING, ANNE - University Of Jena
item Fay, Philip
item HAGENAH, NICOLE - University Of Pretoria
item KLEINHESSELINK, ANDREW - University Of California
item MITCHELL, RACHEL - Northern Arizona University
item MOORE, JOSLIN - Monash University
item NOGUEIRA, CARLA - University Of Lisbon
item PERI, PABLO - Consejo Nacional De Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas(CONICET)
item ROSCHER, CHRISTIANE - Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research
item SMITH, MELINDA - Colorado State University
item WRAGG, PETER - Lancaster University
item RISCH, ANITA - Swiss Federal Research Institute Wsl

Submitted to: Nature Ecology and Evolution
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/19/2018
Publication Date: 2/4/2019
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/6662310
Citation: Firn, J., McGree, J., Harvey, E., Flores-Moreno, H., Schütz, M., Buckley, Y.M., Borer, E., Seabloom, E., La Pierre, K.J., MacDougall, A.M., Prober, S.M., Stevens, C.J., Sullivan, L., Porter, E., Ladouceur, E., Allen, C., Moromizato, K.H., Morgan, J.W., Harpole, W.S., Hautier, Y., Eisenhauer, N., Wright, J., Adler, P.B., Arnillas, C.A., Bakker, J.D., Biederman, L., Broadbent, A.A., Brown, C.S., Bugalho, M.N., Caldeira, M., Cleland, E., Ebeling, A., Fay, P.A., Hagenah, N., Kleinhesselink, A.R., Mitchell, R., Moore, J.L., Nogueira, C., Peri, P.L., Roscher, C., Smith, M., Wragg, P.D., Risch, A.C. 2019. Leaf nutrients, not specific leaf area, are consistent indicators of elevated nutrient inputs. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 3:400-406. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0790-1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0790-1

Interpretive Summary: The increasing abundance in the environment of plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phoshorus, and potassium is greatly altering the biological diversity of plant communities, including those such as grasslands that are important for livestock production. How grassland plant species respond to excess abundance of these nutrients depends in part on how plant species invest in building leaves. Even a simple feature of leaves such as their thickness may help determine whether a species increases or decreases in response to excess availability of nutrients, and whether species responses and resulting species composition of plant communities are concurrently affected by grazers. This study examined 27 grasslands where grazer and nutrient effects on leaf thickness were tested in a controlled experiment. The study found substantial changes in plant community composition, but little change in leaf thickness, suggesting that leaf thickness or other plant traits may not be helpful in evaluating the effects of nutrient enrichment on grasslands.

Technical Abstract: Theory predicts that plant functional traits rather than species composition provide a common currency for understanding how anthropogenic pressures such as eutrophication and reduced herbivory impact the functioning of grasslands. Here, we show for the first time in a global experimental network comprised of 27 grassland sites across four countries that one of the most commonly measured leaf traits, specific leaf area (SLA, a composite measure of leaf area per unit mass), does not increase significantly in response to fertilizer and herbivore exclusion treatments as theory predicts. Leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contents did increase in response to soil nutrient addition, but contrary to expectations, we found few significant increases when vertebrate consumers were excluded. We also found significant context dependency in how leaf traits changed depending on species turnover over time in response to treatments and climatic and soil nutrient conditions. We revealed generalizable local response syndromes (explained by combinations of intraspecific and interspecific trait variation) where plants change physiologically without necessarily investing differently in leaf area, suggesting that leaf traits such as SLA may not be appropriate indicators of adaptation to short-term perturbations.