Dataset Information

Invasion by the Alien Tree Prunus serotina Alters Ecosystem Functions in a Temperate Deciduous Forest.

ABSTRACT: Alien invasive species can affect large areas, often with wide-ranging impacts on ecosystem structure, function, and services. Prunus serotina is a widespread invader of European temperate forests, where it tends to form homogeneous stands and limits recruitment of indigenous trees. We hypotesized that invasion by P. serotina would be reflected in the nutrient contents of the native species' leaves and in the respiration of invaded plots as efficient resource uptake and changes in nutrient cycling by P. serotina probably underly its aggressive invasiveness. We combined data from 48 field plots in the forest of Compiègne, France, and data from an experiment using 96 microcosms derived from those field plots. We used general linear models to separate effects of invasion by P. serotina on heterotrophic soil and litter respiration rates and on canopy foliar nutrient content from effects of soil chemical properties, litter quantity, litter species composition, and tree species composition. In invaded stands, average respiration rates were 5.6% higher for soil (without litter) and 32% higher for soil and litter combined. Compared to indigenous tree species, P. serotina exhibited higher foliar N (+24.0%), foliar P (+50.7%), and lower foliar C:N (-22.4%) and N:P (-10.1%) ratios. P. serotina affected foliar nutrient contents of co-occuring indigenous tree species leading to decreased foliar N (-8.7 %) and increased C:N ratio (+9.5%) in Fagus sylvatica, decreased foliar N:P ratio in Carpinus betulus (-13.5%) and F. sylvatica (-11.8%), and increased foliar P in Pinus sylvestris (+12.3%) in invaded vs. uninvaded stands. Our results suggest that P. serotina is changing nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon cycles to its own advantage, hereby increasing carbon turnover via labile litter, affecting the relative nutrient contents in the overstory leaves, and potentially altering the photosynthetic capacity of the long-lived indigenous broadleaved species. Uncontrolled invasion of European temperate forests by P. serotina may affect the climate change mitigation potential of these forests in the long term, through additive effects on local nutrient cycles.

SUBMITTER: Aerts R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5307375 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Invasion by the Alien Tree Prunus serotina Alters Ecosystem Functions in a Temperate Deciduous Forest.

Aerts Raf R Ewald Michael M Nicolas Manuel M Piat Jérôme J Skowronek Sandra S Lenoir Jonathan J Hattab Tarek T Garzón-López Carol X CX Feilhauer Hannes H Schmidtlein Sebastian S Rocchini Duccio D Decocq Guillaume G Somers Ben B Van De Kerchove Ruben R Denef Karolien K Honnay Olivier O

Frontiers in plant science 20170214

Alien invasive species can affect large areas, often with wide-ranging impacts on ecosystem structure, function, and services. Prunus serotina is a widespread invader of European temperate forests, where it tends to form homogeneous stands and limits recruitment of indigenous trees. We hypotesized that invasion by P. serotina would be reflected in the nutrient contents of the native species' leaves and in the respiration of invaded plots as efficient resource uptake and changes in ...[more]

PMID: 28261238

Similar Datasets

Project description:Invasive plants can modify the diversity and taxonomical structure of soil microbiomes. However, it is difficult to generalize the underlying factors as their influence often seems to depend on the complex plant-soil-microbial interactions. In this paper, we investigated how Quercus rubra impacts on the soil microbiome across two soil horizons in relation to native woodland. Five paired adjacent invaded vs native vegetation plots in a managed forest in southern Poland were investigated. Soil microbial communities were assessed along with soil enzyme activities and soil physicochemical parameters, separately for both organic and mineral horizons, as well as forest stand characteristics to explore plant-soil-microbe interactions. Although Q. rubra did not significantly affect pH, organic C, total N, available nutrients nor enzymatic activity, differences in soil abiotic properties (except C to N ratio) were primarily driven by soil depth for both vegetation types. Further, we found significant differences in soil microbiome under invasion in relation to native vegetation. Microbial richness and diversity were lower in both horizons of Q. rubra vs control plots. Moreover, Q. rubra increased relative abundance of unique amplicon sequence variants in both horizons and thereby significantly changed the structure of the core soil microbial communities, in comparison to the control plots. In addition, predicted microbial functional groups indicated a predominant soil depth effect in both vegetation plots with higher abundance of aerobic chemoheterotrophic bacteria and endophytic fungi in the organic horizon and greater abundance of methanotrophic and methylotrophic bacteria, and ectomycorrhizal fungi in the mineral horizon. Overall, our results indicate strong associations between Q. rubra invasion and changes in soil microbiome and associated functions, a finding that needs to be further investigated to predict modifications in ecosystem functioning caused by this invasive species.

Project description:An important challenge for silvicultural practices is the conservation of tree diversity while fulfilling the traditional objectives of forest management, most notably timber harvesting. The purpose of this study was to compare the tree diversity before and after the application of silvicultural treatments in a temperate forest in northern Mexico. Fifteen experimental plots, each measuring 2500 m2, were established to evaluate the immediate effect of four silvicultural treatments. These treatments were identified by their levels of management: intensive (clearcut, removal 100%), semi-intensive (removal of 59-61% of basal area), conservative (removal of 29-31% of basal area), and a control group. New forest guidelines, in contrast to conventional approaches, were applied to the semi-intensive and conservative treatments based on health and diversity conditions. Basal area, canopy cover, tree and total volume were measured in each plot. The Importance Value Index, alpha diversity, and evenness were estimated before and after treatments. Eighteen species belonging to five genera and five families were found in the study area. The species with the highest ecological values were Pinus durangensis, P. teocote, Quercus sideroxyla, and Quercus convallata with IVI numbers between 13.6 and 24.5%. Alpha diversity was intermediate (Margalef: 2.9 to 3.8), while dominance and evenness were above average compared to other studies (Simpson: 0.69 to 0.77; Shannon-Wiener: 1.44 to 1.6; Pielou: 0.76 to 0.85). The species evenness index in the conservative treatment was high (Sorensen, Jaccard, quantitative Sorensen and Morisita-Horn; 88 to 99%), although abundance decreased. Overall, there were no significant differences in IVI values and diversity indicators before and after treatments, with the exception of the clearcut treatment. When associating the diversity indices with stand variables, only the Pielou's evenness index showed a significant relationship between them. We concluded that both the conservative and semi-intensive treatments did not generate significant changes in tree diversity, but the former had slightly higher alpha diversity indices. These results can provide a better insight on silvicultural practices and their effects on species composition.

Dataset Information

Invasion by the Alien Tree Prunus serotina Alters Ecosystem Functions in a Temperate Deciduous Forest.

Publications

Invasion by the Alien Tree <i>Prunus serotina</i> Alters Ecosystem Functions in a Temperate Deciduous Forest.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets