TY  - JOUR
AB  - Trait-based approaches have been increasingly used to relate plants to soil microbial communities. Using the recently described root economics space as an approach to explain the structure of soil-borne fungal communities, our study in a grassland diversity experiment reveals distinct root trait strategies at the plant community level. In addition to significant effects of plant species richness, we show that the collaboration and conservation gradient are strong drivers of the composition of the different guilds of soil fungi. Saprotrophic fungi are most diverse in species-rich plant communities with 'slow' root traits, whereas plant pathogenic fungi are most diverse and abundant in communities with 'fast' and 'DIY' root traits. Fungal biomass is strongly driven by plant species richness. Our results illustrate that the root economics space and plant species richness jointly determine the effects of plants on soil fungal communities and their potential role in plant fitness and ecosystem functioning.
AU  - Hennecke, J.*
AU  - Bassi, L.*
AU  - Albracht, C.*
AU  - Amyntas, A.*
AU  - Bergmann, J.*
AU  - Eisenhauer, N.*
AU  - Fox, A.*
AU  - Heimbold, L.*
AU  - Heintz-Buschart, A.*
AU  - Kuyper, T.W.*
AU  - Lange, M.*
AU  - Pinheiro Alves de Souza, Y.
AU  - Rai, A.*
AU  - Solbach, M.D.*
AU  - Mommer, L.*
AU  - Weigelt, A.*
C1  - 72915
C2  - 56895
CY  - 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, Nj Usa
TI  - Plant species richness and the root economics space drive soil fungal communities.
JO  - Ecol. Lett.
VL  - 28
IS  - 1
PB  - Wiley
PY  - 2025
SN  - 1461-023X
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Climate change is disproportionately impacting mountain ecosystems, leading to large reductions in winter snow cover, earlier spring snowmelt and widespread shrub expansion into alpine grasslands. Yet, the combined effects of shrub expansion and changing snow conditions on abiotic and biotic soil properties remains poorly understood. We used complementary field experiments to show that reduced snow cover and earlier snowmelt have effects on soil microbial communities and functioning that persist into summer. However, ericaceous shrub expansion modulates a number of these impacts and has stronger belowground effects than changing snow conditions. Ericaceous shrub expansion did not alter snow depth or snowmelt timing but did increase the abundance of ericoid mycorrhizal fungi and oligotrophic bacteria, which was linked to decreased soil respiration and nitrogen availability. Our findings suggest that changing winter snow conditions have cross-seasonal impacts on soil properties, but shifts in vegetation can modulate belowground effects of future alpine climate change.
AU  - Broadbent, A.A.D.*
AU  - Bahn, M.*
AU  - Pritchard, W.J.*
AU  - Newbold, L.K.*
AU  - Goodall, T.*
AU  - Guinta, A.*
AU  - Snell, H.S.K.*
AU  - Cordero, I.*
AU  - Michas, A.
AU  - Grant, H.K.*
AU  - Soto, D.X.*
AU  - Kaufmann, R.*
AU  - Schloter, M.
AU  - Griffiths, R.I.*
AU  - Bardgett, R.D.*
C1  - 63380
C2  - 51309
CY  - 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, Nj Usa
TI  - Shrub expansion modulates belowground impacts of changing snow conditions in alpine grasslands.
JO  - Ecol. Lett.
PB  - Wiley
PY  - 2021
SN  - 1461-023X
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Growing evidence shows that epigenetic mechanisms contribute to complex traits, with implications across many fields of biology. In plant ecology, recent studies have attempted to merge ecological experiments with epigenetic analyses to elucidate the contribution of epigenetics to plant phenotypes, stress responses, adaptation to habitat, and range distributions. While there has been some progress in revealing the role of epigenetics in ecological processes, studies with non-model species have so far been limited to describing broad patterns based on anonymous markers of DNA methylation. In contrast, studies with model species have benefited from powerful genomic resources, which contribute to a more mechanistic understanding but have limited ecological realism. Understanding the significance of epigenetics for plant ecology requires increased transfer of knowledge and methods from model species research to genomes of evolutionarily divergent species, and examination of responses to complex natural environments at a more mechanistic level. This requires transforming genomics tools specifically for studying non-model species, which is challenging given the large and often polyploid genomes of plants. Collaboration among molecular geneticists, ecologists and bioinformaticians promises to enhance our understanding of the mutual links between genome function and ecological processes.
AU  - Richards, C.L.*
AU  - Alonso, C.*
AU  - Becker, C.*
AU  - Bossdorf, O.*
AU  - Bucher, E.*
AU  - Colomé-Tatché, M.
AU  - Durka, W.*
AU  - Engelhardt, J.*
AU  - Gaspar, B.*
AU  - Gogol-Döring, A.*
AU  - Grosse, I.*
AU  - van Gurp, T.P.*
AU  - Heer, K.*
AU  - Kronholm, I.*
AU  - Lampei, C.*
AU  - Latzel, V.*
AU  - Mirouze, M.*
AU  - Opgenoorth, L.*
AU  - Paun, O.*
AU  - Prohaska, S.J.*
AU  - Rensing, S.A.*
AU  - Stadler, P.F.*
AU  - Trucchi, E.*
AU  - Ullrich, K.*
AU  - Verhoeven, K.J.F.*
C1  - 52163
C2  - 43751
CY  - Hoboken
SP  - 1576-1590
TI  - Ecological plant epigenetics: Evidence from model and non-model species, and the way forward.
JO  - Ecol. Lett.
VL  - 20
IS  - 12
PB  - Wiley
PY  - 2017
SN  - 1461-023X
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Global change, especially land-use intensification, affects human well-being by impacting the delivery of multiple ecosystem services (multifunctionality). However, whether biodiversity loss is a major component of global change effects on multifunctionality in real-world ecosystems, as in experimental ones, remains unclear. Therefore, we assessed biodiversity, functional composition and 14 ecosystem services on 150 agricultural grasslands differing in land-use intensity. We also introduce five multifunctionality measures in which ecosystem services were weighted according to realistic land-use objectives. We found that indirect land-use effects, i.e. those mediated by biodiversity loss and by changes to functional composition, were as strong as direct effects on average. Their strength varied with land-use objectives and regional context. Biodiversity loss explained indirect effects in a region of intermediate productivity and was most damaging when land-use objectives favoured supporting and cultural services. In contrast, functional composition shifts, towards fast-growing plant species, strongly increased provisioning services in more inherently unproductive grasslands.
AU  - Allan, E.*
AU  - Manning, P.*
AU  - Alt, F.*
AU  - Binkenstein, J.*
AU  - Blaser, S.*
AU  - Blüthgen, N.*
AU  - Böhm, S.*
AU  - Grassein, F.*
AU  - Hölzel, N.*
AU  - Klaus, V.H.*
AU  - Kleinebecker, T.*
AU  - Morris, E.K.*
AU  - Oelmann, Y.*
AU  - Prati, D.*
AU  - Renner, S.C.*
AU  - Rillig, M.C.*
AU  - Schaefer, M.*
AU  - Schloter, M.
AU  - Schmitt, B.*
AU  - Schöning, I.*
AU  - Schrumpf, M.*
AU  - Solly, E.*
AU  - Sorkau, E.*
AU  - Steckel, J.*
AU  - Steffen-Dewenter, I.*
AU  - Stempfhuber, B.
AU  - Tschapka, M.*
AU  - Weiner, C.N.*
AU  - Weisser, W.W.*
AU  - Werner, M.*
AU  - Westphal, C.*
AU  - Wilcke, W.*
AU  - Fischer, M.*
C1  - 45383
C2  - 37341
CY  - Hoboken
SP  - 834-843
TI  - Land use intensification alters ecosystem multifunctionality via loss of biodiversity and changes to functional composition.
JO  - Ecol. Lett.
VL  - 18
IS  - 8
PB  - Wiley-blackwell
PY  - 2015
SN  - 1461-023X
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Ectomycorrhizal (EcM)-mediated nitrogen (N) acquisition is one main strategy used by terrestrial plants to facilitate growth. Measurements of natural abundance nitrogen isotope ratios (denoted as δ(15) N relative to a standard) increasingly serve as integrative proxies for mycorrhiza-mediated N acquisition due to biological fractionation processes that alter (15) N:(14) N ratios. Current understanding of these processes is based on studies from high-latitude ecosystems where plant productivity is largely limited by N availability. Much less is known about the cause and utility of ecosystem δ(15) N patterns in the tropics. Using structural equation models, model selection and isotope mass balance we assessed relationships among co-occurring soil, mycorrhizal plants and fungal N pools measured from 40 high- and 9 low-latitude ecosystems. At low latitudes (15) N-enrichment caused ecosystem components to significantly deviate from those in higher latitudes. Collectively, δ(15) N patterns suggested reduced N-dependency and unique sources of EcM (15) N-enrichment under conditions of high N availability typical of the tropics. Understanding the role of mycorrhizae in global N cycles will require reevaluation of high-latitude perspectives on fractionation sources that structure ecosystem δ(15) N patterns, as well as better integration of EcM function with biogeochemical theories pertaining to climate-nutrient cycling relationships.
AU  - Mayor, J.*
AU  - Bahram, M.*
AU  - Henkel, T.*
AU  - Buegger, F.
AU  - Pritsch, K.
AU  - Tedersoo, L.*
C1  - 32654
C2  - 35196
SP  - 96-107
TI  - Ectomycorrhizal impacts on plant nitrogen nutrition: Emerging isotopic patterns, latitudinal variation and hidden mechanisms.
JO  - Ecol. Lett.
VL  - 18
IS  - 1
PY  - 2014
SN  - 1461-023X
ER  -