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The root herbivore history of the soil affects the productivity of a grassland plant community and determines plant response to new root herbivore attack.

ABSTRACT: Insect root herbivores can alter plant community structure by affecting the competitive ability of single plants. However, their effects can be modified by the soil environment. Root herbivory itself may induce changes in the soil biota community, and it has recently been shown that these changes can affect plant growth in a subsequent season or plant generation. However, so far it is not known whether these root herbivore history effects (i) are detectable at the plant community level and/or (ii) also determine plant species and plant community responses to new root herbivore attack. The present greenhouse study determined root herbivore history effects of click beetle larvae (Elateridae, Coleoptera, genus Agriotes) in a model grassland plant community consisting of six common species (Achillea millefolium, Plantago lanceolata, Taraxacum officinale, Holcus lanatus, Poa pratensis, Trifolium repens). Root herbivore history effects were generated in a first phase of the experiment by growing the plant community in soil with or without Agriotes larvae, and investigated in a second phase by growing it again in the soils that were either Agriotes trained or not. The root herbivore history of the soil affected plant community productivity (but not composition), with communities growing in root herbivore trained soil producing more biomass than those growing in untrained soil. Additionally, it influenced the response of certain plant species to new root herbivore attack. Effects may partly be explained by herbivore-induced shifts in the community of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The root herbivore history of the soil proved to be a stronger driver of plant growth on the community level than an actual root herbivore attack which did not affect plant community parameters. History effects have to be taken into account when predicting the impact of root herbivores on grasslands.

SUBMITTER: Sonnemann I

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3575479 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The root herbivore history of the soil affects the productivity of a grassland plant community and determines plant response to new root herbivore attack.

Sonnemann Ilja I Hempel Stefan S Beutel Maria M Hanauer Nicola N Reidinger Stefan S Wurst Susanne S

PloS one 20130218 2

Insect root herbivores can alter plant community structure by affecting the competitive ability of single plants. However, their effects can be modified by the soil environment. Root herbivory itself may induce changes in the soil biota community, and it has recently been shown that these changes can affect plant growth in a subsequent season or plant generation. However, so far it is not known whether these root herbivore history effects (i) are detectable at the plant community level and/or (i ...[more]

PMID: 23441201

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Project description:Long-term biodiversity experiments have shown increasing strengths of biodiversity effects on plant productivity over time. However, little is known about rapid evolutionary processes in response to plant community diversity, which could contribute to explaining the strengthening positive relationship. To address this issue, we performed a transplant experiment with offspring of seeds collected from four grass species in a 14-year-old biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment). We used two- and six-species communities and removed the vegetation of the study plots to exclude plant-plant interactions. In a reciprocal design, we transplanted five "home" phytometers (same origin and actual environment), five "away-same" phytometers (same species richness of origin and actual environment, but different plant composition), and five "away-different" phytometers (different species richness of origin and actual environment) of the same species in the study plots. In the establishment year, plants transplanted in home soil produced more shoots than plants in away soil indicating that plant populations at low and high diversity developed differently over time depending on their associated soil community and/or conditions. In the second year, offspring of individuals selected at high diversity generally had a higher performance (biomass production and fitness) than offspring of individuals selected at low diversity, regardless of the transplant environment. This suggests that plants at low and high diversity showed rapid evolutionary responses measurable in their phenotype. Our findings provide first empirical evidence that loss of productivity at low diversity is not only caused by changes in abiotic and biotic conditions but also that plants respond to this by a change in their micro-evolution. Thus, we conclude that eco-evolutionary feedbacks of plants at low and high diversity are critical to fully understand why the positive influence of diversity on plant productivity is strengthening through time.

Dataset Information

The root herbivore history of the soil affects the productivity of a grassland plant community and determines plant response to new root herbivore attack.

Publications

The root herbivore history of the soil affects the productivity of a grassland plant community and determines plant response to new root herbivore attack.

Similar Datasets

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