Plant-soil feedback effects can be masked by aboveground herbivory under natural field conditions
Plant-soil feedback effects can be masked by aboveground herbivory under natural field conditions
复制标题
在自然田间条件下，植物-土壤反馈效应可以被地上食草动物所掩盖
DOI：
10.1007/s00442-017-3997-y
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发表时间：
2018-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Joshi, Jasmin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Heinze, Johannes;Joshi, Jasmin
对于植物来说，植食性及其与周围土壤生态系统的相互作用是影响个体表现和植物群落组成的关键因素。到目前为止，研究主要集中在草食动物或植物-土壤反馈（PSFs）对植物生长和群落组成的个体影响，但很少有研究明确调查草食动物的背景下的PSFs。然而，这几项研究是在温室条件下进行的，尽管温室和田间条件下的PSF和草食动物可能不同。因此，我们在草地上进行了一项实地实验，测试了三种草的生长反应，这些草在当地的丰富程度上始终不同，在以前由这些物种调节的土壤上。我们测试了这些PSF的影响，在存在和不存在地上食草动物的三个物种。在没有食草动物的情况下，两个亚优势种遭受负PSF效应。然而，在草食动物的存在下，在异种土壤上，同样的两个物种经历了显着的损失的地上部生物量，而相反，增强根的生长观察同种土壤，导致整体中性PSF的影响。优势种没有受到草食动物的破坏，并在有和没有草食动物的情况下表现出总体中性的PSF效应。我们的研究提供了经验证据表明，在草原自然条件下存在的负面PSF效应可以被地上食草动物压倒。因此，潜在的PSF效应可能不会在现场检测到，因为其他非生物和生物的相互作用，如地上草食动物对植物的性能有更强的影响，因此可能掩盖或覆盖这些PSF效应。
For plants, herbivory and interactions with their surrounding soil ecosystem are crucial factors influencing individual performance and plant-community composition. Until now, research has mostly focused on individual effects of herbivory or plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) on plant growth and community composition, but few studies have explicitly investigated herbivory in the context of PSFs. These few studies, however, were performed under greenhouse conditions even though PSFs and herbivory may differ between greenhouse and field conditions. Therefore, we performed a field experiment in a grassland, testing the growth responses of three grass species that consistently differ in local abundance, on soils previously conditioned by these species. We tested these PSF effects for the three species both in the presence and in the absence of aboveground herbivores. Without herbivores, the two subdominant species suffered from negative PSF effects. However, in the presence of herbivores and on heterospecific soils, the same two species experienced a significant loss of shoot biomass, whereas, in contrast, enhanced root growth was observed on conspecific soils, resulting in overall neutral PSF effects. The dominant species was not damaged by herbivores and showed overall neutral PSF effects in the field with and without herbivores. Our study provides empirical evidence that negative PSF effects that exist under natural field conditions in grasslands can be overwhelmed by aboveground herbivory. Hence, potential PSF effects might not be detected in the field, because other abiotic and biotic interactions such as aboveground herbivory have stronger effects on plant performance and might therefore mask or override these PSF effects.