Nutrients and herbivores impact grassland stability across spatial scales through different pathways

Qingqing Chen; Shaopeng Wang; Eric W. Seabloom; Andrew S. MacDougall; Elizabeth T. Borer; Jonathan D. Bakker; Ian Donohue; Johannes M.H. Knops; John W. Morgan; Oliver Carroll; Mick Crawley; Miguel N. Bugalho; Sally A. Power; Anu Eskelinen; Risto Virtanen; Anita C. Risch; Martin Schütz; Carly Stevens; Maria C. Caldeira; Sumanta Bagchi; Juan Alberti; Yann Hautier

doi:10.1111/gcb.16086

Nutrients and herbivores impact grassland stability across spatial scales through different pathways

Qingqing Chen, Shaopeng Wang, Eric W. Seabloom, Andrew S. MacDougall, Elizabeth T. Borer, Jonathan D. Bakker, Ian Donohue, Johannes M.H. Knops, John W. Morgan, Oliver Carroll, Mick Crawley, Miguel N. Bugalho, Sally A. Power, Anu Eskelinen, Risto Virtanen, Anita C. Risch, Martin Schütz, Carly Stevens, Maria C. Caldeira, Sumanta BagchiJuan Alberti, Yann Hautier

Ecology, Evolution and Behavior

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nutrients and herbivores are well-known drivers of grassland diversity and stability in local communities. However, whether they interact to impact the stability of aboveground biomass and whether these effects depend on spatial scales remain unknown. It is also unclear whether nutrients and herbivores impact stability via different facets of plant diversity including species richness, evenness, and changes in community composition through time and space. We used a replicated experiment adding nutrients and excluding herbivores for 5 years in 34 global grasslands to explore these questions. We found that both nutrient addition and herbivore exclusion alone reduced stability at the larger spatial scale (aggregated local communities; gamma stability), but through different pathways. Nutrient addition reduced gamma stability primarily by increasing changes in local community composition over time, which was mainly driven by species replacement. Herbivore exclusion reduced gamma stability primarily by decreasing asynchronous dynamics among local communities (spatial asynchrony). Their interaction weakly increased gamma stability by increasing spatial asynchrony. Our findings indicate that disentangling the processes operating at different spatial scales may improve conservation and management aiming at maintaining the ability of ecosystems to reliably provide functions and services for humanity.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2678-2688
Number of pages	11
Journal	Global change biology
Volume	28
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16086
State	Published - Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31988102, 32122053). This work was generated using data from the NutNet ( http://www.nutnet.org ) experiment, funded at the site‐scale by individual researchers. Coordination and data management have been supported by funding to E. Borer and E. Seabloom from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF‐DEB‐1042132) and Long Term Ecological Research (NSF‐DEB‐1234162 and NSF‐DEB‐1831944 to Cedar Creek LTER) programs, and the Institute on the Environment (DG‐0001‐13). We also thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data and the Institute on the Environment for hosting Network meetings. Nitrogen fertilizer was donated to the NutNet by Crop Production Services, Loveland, CO. We thank Maowei Liang for helpful discussion and two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve our manuscript.

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31988102, 32122053). This work was generated using data from the NutNet (http://www.nutnet.org) experiment, funded at the site-scale by individual researchers. Coordination and data management have been supported by funding to E. Borer and E. Seabloom from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF-DEB-1042132) and Long Term Ecological Research (NSF-DEB-1234162 and NSF-DEB-1831944 to Cedar Creek LTER) programs, and the Institute on the Environment (DG-0001-13). We also thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data and the Institute on the Environment for hosting Network meetings. Nitrogen fertilizer was donated to the NutNet by Crop Production Services, Loveland, CO. We thank Maowei Liang for helpful discussion and two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve our manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords

Nutrient Network (NutNet)
biodiversity-stability
cross-scale
eutrophication
grazing

Publisher link

10.1111/gcb.16086

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Chen, Q., Wang, S., Seabloom, E. W., MacDougall, A. S., Borer, E. T., Bakker, J. D., Donohue, I., Knops, J. M. H., Morgan, J. W., Carroll, O., Crawley, M., Bugalho, M. N., Power, S. A., Eskelinen, A., Virtanen, R., Risch, A. C., Schütz, M., Stevens, C., Caldeira, M. C., ... Hautier, Y. (2022). Nutrients and herbivores impact grassland stability across spatial scales through different pathways. Global change biology, 28(8), 2678-2688. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16086

Chen, Q, Wang, S, Seabloom, EW, MacDougall, AS, Borer, ET, Bakker, JD, Donohue, I, Knops, JMH, Morgan, JW, Carroll, O, Crawley, M, Bugalho, MN, Power, SA, Eskelinen, A, Virtanen, R, Risch, AC, Schütz, M, Stevens, C, Caldeira, MC, Bagchi, S, Alberti, J & Hautier, Y 2022, 'Nutrients and herbivores impact grassland stability across spatial scales through different pathways', Global change biology, vol. 28, no. 8, pp. 2678-2688. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16086

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title = "Nutrients and herbivores impact grassland stability across spatial scales through different pathways",

abstract = "Nutrients and herbivores are well-known drivers of grassland diversity and stability in local communities. However, whether they interact to impact the stability of aboveground biomass and whether these effects depend on spatial scales remain unknown. It is also unclear whether nutrients and herbivores impact stability via different facets of plant diversity including species richness, evenness, and changes in community composition through time and space. We used a replicated experiment adding nutrients and excluding herbivores for 5 years in 34 global grasslands to explore these questions. We found that both nutrient addition and herbivore exclusion alone reduced stability at the larger spatial scale (aggregated local communities; gamma stability), but through different pathways. Nutrient addition reduced gamma stability primarily by increasing changes in local community composition over time, which was mainly driven by species replacement. Herbivore exclusion reduced gamma stability primarily by decreasing asynchronous dynamics among local communities (spatial asynchrony). Their interaction weakly increased gamma stability by increasing spatial asynchrony. Our findings indicate that disentangling the processes operating at different spatial scales may improve conservation and management aiming at maintaining the ability of ecosystems to reliably provide functions and services for humanity.",

keywords = "Nutrient Network (NutNet), biodiversity-stability, cross-scale, eutrophication, grazing",

author = "Qingqing Chen and Shaopeng Wang and Seabloom, {Eric W.} and MacDougall, {Andrew S.} and Borer, {Elizabeth T.} and Bakker, {Jonathan D.} and Ian Donohue and Knops, {Johannes M.H.} and Morgan, {John W.} and Oliver Carroll and Mick Crawley and Bugalho, {Miguel N.} and Power, {Sally A.} and Anu Eskelinen and Risto Virtanen and Risch, {Anita C.} and Martin Sch{\"u}tz and Carly Stevens and Caldeira, {Maria C.} and Sumanta Bagchi and Juan Alberti and Yann Hautier",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31988102, 32122053). This work was generated using data from the NutNet ( http://www.nutnet.org ) experiment, funded at the site‐scale by individual researchers. Coordination and data management have been supported by funding to E. Borer and E. Seabloom from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF‐DEB‐1042132) and Long Term Ecological Research (NSF‐DEB‐1234162 and NSF‐DEB‐1831944 to Cedar Creek LTER) programs, and the Institute on the Environment (DG‐0001‐13). We also thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data and the Institute on the Environment for hosting Network meetings. Nitrogen fertilizer was donated to the NutNet by Crop Production Services, Loveland, CO. We thank Maowei Liang for helpful discussion and two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve our manuscript. Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31988102, 32122053). This work was generated using data from the NutNet (http://www.nutnet.org) experiment, funded at the site-scale by individual researchers. Coordination and data management have been supported by funding to E. Borer and E. Seabloom from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF-DEB-1042132) and Long Term Ecological Research (NSF-DEB-1234162 and NSF-DEB-1831944 to Cedar Creek LTER) programs, and the Institute on the Environment (DG-0001-13). We also thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data and the Institute on the Environment for hosting Network meetings. Nitrogen fertilizer was donated to the NutNet by Crop Production Services, Loveland, CO. We thank Maowei Liang for helpful discussion and two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve our manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.",

year = "2022",

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doi = "10.1111/gcb.16086",

language = "English (US)",

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AU - Chen, Qingqing

AU - Wang, Shaopeng

AU - Seabloom, Eric W.

AU - MacDougall, Andrew S.

AU - Borer, Elizabeth T.

AU - Bakker, Jonathan D.

AU - Donohue, Ian

AU - Knops, Johannes M.H.

AU - Morgan, John W.

AU - Carroll, Oliver

AU - Crawley, Mick

AU - Bugalho, Miguel N.

AU - Power, Sally A.

AU - Eskelinen, Anu

AU - Virtanen, Risto

AU - Risch, Anita C.

AU - Schütz, Martin

AU - Stevens, Carly

AU - Caldeira, Maria C.

AU - Bagchi, Sumanta

AU - Alberti, Juan

AU - Hautier, Yann

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N2 - Nutrients and herbivores are well-known drivers of grassland diversity and stability in local communities. However, whether they interact to impact the stability of aboveground biomass and whether these effects depend on spatial scales remain unknown. It is also unclear whether nutrients and herbivores impact stability via different facets of plant diversity including species richness, evenness, and changes in community composition through time and space. We used a replicated experiment adding nutrients and excluding herbivores for 5 years in 34 global grasslands to explore these questions. We found that both nutrient addition and herbivore exclusion alone reduced stability at the larger spatial scale (aggregated local communities; gamma stability), but through different pathways. Nutrient addition reduced gamma stability primarily by increasing changes in local community composition over time, which was mainly driven by species replacement. Herbivore exclusion reduced gamma stability primarily by decreasing asynchronous dynamics among local communities (spatial asynchrony). Their interaction weakly increased gamma stability by increasing spatial asynchrony. Our findings indicate that disentangling the processes operating at different spatial scales may improve conservation and management aiming at maintaining the ability of ecosystems to reliably provide functions and services for humanity.

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Nutrients and herbivores impact grassland stability across spatial scales through different pathways

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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