Plant diversity and density predict belowground diversity and function in an early successional alpine ecosystem

Ecology
Dorota L PorazinskaSteve K Schmidt

Abstract

Despite decades of interest, few studies have provided evidence supporting theoretical expectations for coupled relationships between aboveground and belowground diversity and ecosystem functioning in non-manipulated natural ecosystems. We characterized plant species richness and density, soil bacterial, fungal and eukaryotic species richness and phylogenetic diversity (using 16S, ITS, and 18S gene sequencing), and ecosystem function (levels of soil C and N, and rates of microbial enzyme activities) along a natural gradient in plant richness and density in high-elevation, C-deficient soils to examine the coupling between above- and belowground systems. Overall, we observed a strong positive relationship between aboveground (plant richness and density) and belowground (bacteria, fungi, and non-fungal eukaryotes) richness. In addition to the correlations between plants and soil communities, C and N pools, and rates of enzyme activities increased as plant and soil communities became richer and more diverse. Our results suggest that the theoretically expected positive correlation between above- and belowground communities does exist in natural systems, but may be undetectable in late successional ecosystems due to the buildup of le...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

Feb 7, 2019·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Fons van der Plas
Aug 4, 2019·The Journal of Microbiology·Eli Michael S GendronSteven K Schmidt
Feb 6, 2020·The New Phytologist·Heli JuottonenMinna-Maarit Kytöviita
Nov 2, 2019·Scientific Reports·Asuka KounosuTaisei Kikuchi
Jan 11, 2020·Frontiers in Microbiology·Emily C FarrerKatharine N Suding
Jun 4, 2019·Frontiers in Microbiology·Magdalene AdamczykBeat Frey
Mar 21, 2021·Applied and Environmental Microbiology·Congcong ShenYuan Ge

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