RT Journal Article
T1 The functional structure of plant communities drives soil functioning via changes in soil abiotic properties
A1 Valencia Gómez, Enrique
A1 Galland, Thomas
A1 Carmona, Carlos
A1 Goberna, Marta
A1 Götzenberger, Lars
A1 Lepš, Jan
A1 Verdú, Miguel
A1 Macek, Petr
A1 Bello, Francesco de
AB While biodiversity is expected to enhance multiple ecosystem functions (EFs), the different roles of multiple biodiversity dimensions remain difficult to disentangle without carefully designed experiments. We sowed plant communities with independent levels of functional (FD) and phylogenetic diversities (PD), combined with different levels of fertilization, to investigate their direct and indirect roles on multiple EFs, including plant‐related EFs (plant biomass productivity, litter decomposability), soil fertility (organic carbon and nutrient pool variables), soil microbial activity (respiration and nutrient cycling), and an overall multifunctionality. We expected an increase in most EFs in communities with higher values of FD and/or PD via complementarity effects, but also the dominant plant types (using community weighted mean, CWM, independent of FD and PD) via selection effects on several EFs. The results showed strong direct effects of different dimensions of plant functional structure parameters on plant‐related EFs, through either CWM or FD, with weak effects of PD. Fertilization had significant effects on one soil microbial activity and indirect effects on the other variables via changes in soil abiotic properties. Dominant plant types and FD showed only indirect effects on soil microbial activity, through litter decomposition and soil abiotic properties, highlighting the importance of cascading effects. This study shows the relevance of complementary dimensions of biodiversity for assessing both direct and cascading effects on multiple EFs.
PB Wiley
SN 0012-9658
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/95201
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/95201
LA eng
NO Valencia, Enrique, et al. «The Functional Structure of Plant Communities Drives Soil Functioning via Changes in Soil Abiotic Properties». Ecology, vol. 103, n.o 12, diciembre de 2022, p. e3833. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3833.
NO ACKNOWLEDGMENTSWe thank all people that assisted with field and laboratory work, in particular Hana Dvořáková for helping with the experimental setup, and Miroslav Šrůtek for his permission to carry out the experiment on his land. We also thank Daniel A. Rodríguez and Beatriz López Gurillo for their help with laboratory analyses. The study was supported by the Czech Science Foundation grant GAČR 20-13637S, by Spanish Plan Nacional de I+D+i (project PGC2018-099027-B-I00), by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme (TANDEM; project id. 626392) and by the Young Researchers R&D Project. Ref. M2165—INTRANESTI—financed by Community of Madrid and Rey Juan Carlos University. Enrique Valencia was funded by the 2017 program for attracting and retaining talent of Comunidad de Madrid (no. 2017-T2/AMB-5406). Carlos P. Carmona was supported by the Estonian Research Council (PSG293) and the European Regional Development Fund via the Mobilitas Pluss programme (MOBERC40).
NO Czech Science Foundation
NO European Commission
NO Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
NO Comunidad de Madrid
NO Estonian Research Council
DS Docta Complutense
RD 28 ago 2025