Community-aggregated plant traits interact with soil nutrient heterogeneity to determine ecosystem functioning

García-Palacios, P. and Maestre, F. T. and Milla, R. (2012) Community-aggregated plant traits interact with soil nutrient heterogeneity to determine ecosystem functioning. Plant Soil. 11 p..

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Abstract

Background and aims Spatial distribution of soil nutrients (soil heterogeneity) and availability have strong effects on above- and belowground plant functional traits. Although there is ample evidence on the tight links between functional traits and ecosystem functioning, the role played by soil heterogeneity and availability as modulators of such relationship is poorly known. Methods We conducted a factorial experiment in microcosms containing grasses, legumes and non-legume forbs communities differing in composition to evaluate how soil heterogeneity and availability (50 and 100 mg N) affect the links between traits and ecosystem functioning.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: We thank Patricia Valiente, Jorge Papadopoulos, Becky Mou, Carlos Díaz, Rafael Sendra and Santiago Soliveres for their help during the greenhouse and laboratory work. PGP was supported by a postdoctoral contract from Comunidad de Madrid (REMEDINAL-2) and by a Fulbright fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación. FTM is supported by the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ 2007-2013)/ERC Grant agreement n° 242658. RM was supported by the MICINN-Spain (grants AGL2010-10935-E and CGL2011-28778 and Ramón y Cajal contract). This research was supported by the EXPERTAL grant, funded by Fundación Biodiversidad-CINTRA.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Ecosystem functioning, Functional traits, Soil nutrient heterogeneity, Specific leaf area and specific root length
Author Affiliation: Departamento de Biología y Geología, Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, c/Tulipán s/n, 28933 Móstoles, Spain
Subjects: Soil Science and Microbiology > Soil Sciences
Divisions: General
Depositing User: Mr Siva Shankar
Date Deposited: 14 Jul 2012 09:28
Last Modified: 14 Jul 2012 09:46
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11104-012-1349-6
URI: http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/6758

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