Soil nutrient heterogeneity modulates ecosystem responses to changes in the identity and richness of plant functional groups.

ABSTRACT: Recent research has shown that biodiversity may has its greatest impact on ecosystem functioning in heterogeneous environments. However, the role of soil heterogeneity as a modulator of ecosystem responses to changes in biodiversity remains poorly understood, as few biodiversity studies have explicitly considered this important ecosystem feature.We conducted a microcosm experiment over two growing seasons to evaluate the joint effects of changes in plant functional groups (grasses, legumes, non-legume forbs and a combination of them), spatial distribution of soil nutrients (homogeneous and heterogeneous) and nutrient availability (50 and 100 mg of nitrogen [N] added as organic material) on plant productivity and surrogates of carbon, phosphorous and N cycling (β-glucosidase and acid phosph

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Palacios P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4407982 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature