Plant resource-use characteristics as predictors for species contribution to community biomass in experimental grasslands

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Christiane Roscher
  • Michael Scherer-Lorenzen
  • Jens Schumacher
  • Vicky M. Temperton
  • Nina Buchmann
  • Ernst Detlef Schulze

Increasing productivity of mixtures as compared to monocultures has been reported from numerous experimental studies, but so far the variable contribution of individual species to higher mixture productivity in biodiversity experiments is not well understood. To address this issue, we quantified the productivity of 60 species in monocultures and mixtures of varying species richness (2, 4, 8, 16, 60) and functional group number and composition (1, 2, 3, 4; legumes, grasses, small herbs, tall herbs) and tested how species properties are related to species performance in mixtures in the third year after sowing. We analysed monoculture biomass, plant biomass from separately grown plant individuals (=estimate of plant growth rates), and the monoculture resource-use characteristics canopy height and structure (leaf area index) as indicators for light acquisition, and soil nitrate concentration (=estimate of depletion of plant available nitrogen) and biomass:N ratios (=estimate of biomass produced per unit plant N) as indicators for nitrogen acquisition and use. High monoculture productivity was related to different combinations of resource-use characteristics. The biomass of a species and its proportional contribution to mixture biomass correlated positively with species relative yields, suggesting that highly productive mixture species were most important for an overyielding of mixtures. Although monoculture biomass was a significant predictor for species performance in mixtures except for grasses, a combination of monoculture biomass, plant growth rates and resource-use traits associated with nutrient and light acquisition explained non-legume species performance best. Legume performance was best associated with their monoculture biomass and traits associated with light acquisition. In spite of the fact that high species performance in mixtures was associated with a species' competitive ability as represented by monoculture productivity, growth rates and resource-use traits, our results suggest that species uniqueness in resource acquisition strategies increases the chance for niche differentiation among overyielding species.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftPerspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics
Jahrgang13
Ausgabenummer1
Seiten (von - bis)1-13
Anzahl der Seiten13
ISSN1433-8319
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 20.03.2011
Extern publiziertJa

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Milieu und Raum
  2. International Trade and Firm Performance
  3. “... but the professionals decide everything”
  4. Veranstaltungsmanagement
  5. Model choice and size distribution: a Bayequentist approach
  6. Implications of financial transaction costs on the real economy
  7. Monitoring im Rahmen der Strategischen Umweltprüfung
  8. Heritage, culture and artistic reciprocity
  9. Organisation
  10. Horizontal portability
  11. Two temperatures for one thermostat: The evolution of policy attitudes and support for independence in Catalonia (1991–2018)
  12. Carbon labelling of grocery products
  13. Demand Chain Management
  14. Radical right populism and religion
  15. Clean energy storage technology in the making
  16. Der unversicherte Sprachschaden
  17. Foreign Ownership and the Extensive Margins of Exports
  18. Wer fraß die Geburtstagstorte?
  19. Measuring Effective Democracy
  20. Governing the co-production of nature's contributions to people
  21. Dialogorientierte Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung im Internet
  22. Entscheide du
  23. Entwicklung und Qualitätssicherung von Anwendungssoftware
  24. Democratising platform governance in the sharing economy
  25. Sekem – Humanistic Management in the Egyptian Dessert
  26. The Aging of the Unions in West Germany, 1980-2006
  27. Intermission at the Combat Zone
  28. A "Studium generale" for German speaking Europe
  29. Sailing together
  30. Ansätze zu einer vernetzten Unternehmensplanung
  31. Weaponising Investments
  32. In search of simplification
  33. Community wind and solar
  34. Legitimizing climate policy: The "risk construct" of global climate change in the German mass media
  35. Corporate Sustainability Accounting: Beyond Unfreezing
  36. Phone Wars under Mobile Connectivity