A mechanistic study of plant and microbial controls over R* for nitrogen in an annual grassland.
Differences in species' abilities to capture resources can drive competitive hierarchies, successional dynamics, community diversity, and invasions. To investigate mechanisms of resource competition within a nitrogen (N) limited California grassland community, we established a manipulative expe...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2014-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4149492?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818304861441097728 |
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| author | Stephanie G Yelenik Benjamin P Colman Jonathan M Levine Janneke HilleRisLambers |
| author_facet | Stephanie G Yelenik Benjamin P Colman Jonathan M Levine Janneke HilleRisLambers |
| author_sort | Stephanie G Yelenik |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Differences in species' abilities to capture resources can drive competitive hierarchies, successional dynamics, community diversity, and invasions. To investigate mechanisms of resource competition within a nitrogen (N) limited California grassland community, we established a manipulative experiment using an R* framework. R* theory holds that better competitors within a N limited community should better depress available N in monoculture plots and obtain higher abundance in mixture plots. We asked whether (1) plant uptake or (2) plant species influences on microbial dynamics were the primary drivers of available soil N levels in this system where N structures plant communities. To disentangle the relative roles of plant uptake and microbially-mediated processes in resource competition, we quantified soil N dynamics as well as N pools in plant and microbial biomass in monoculture plots of 11 native or exotic annual grassland plants over one growing season. We found a negative correlation between plant N content and soil dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN, our measure of R*), suggesting that plant uptake drives R*. In contrast, we found no relationship between microbial biomass N or potential net N mineralization and DIN. We conclude that while plant-microbial interactions may have altered the overall quantity of N that plants take up, the relationship between species' abundance and available N in monoculture was largely driven by plant N uptake in this first year of growth. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T06:17:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cd711f72445a4403bc7e2b58f1fca399 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T06:17:25Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-cd711f72445a4403bc7e2b58f1fca3992022-12-21T23:56:55ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0198e10605910.1371/journal.pone.0106059A mechanistic study of plant and microbial controls over R* for nitrogen in an annual grassland.Stephanie G YelenikBenjamin P ColmanJonathan M LevineJanneke HilleRisLambersDifferences in species' abilities to capture resources can drive competitive hierarchies, successional dynamics, community diversity, and invasions. To investigate mechanisms of resource competition within a nitrogen (N) limited California grassland community, we established a manipulative experiment using an R* framework. R* theory holds that better competitors within a N limited community should better depress available N in monoculture plots and obtain higher abundance in mixture plots. We asked whether (1) plant uptake or (2) plant species influences on microbial dynamics were the primary drivers of available soil N levels in this system where N structures plant communities. To disentangle the relative roles of plant uptake and microbially-mediated processes in resource competition, we quantified soil N dynamics as well as N pools in plant and microbial biomass in monoculture plots of 11 native or exotic annual grassland plants over one growing season. We found a negative correlation between plant N content and soil dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN, our measure of R*), suggesting that plant uptake drives R*. In contrast, we found no relationship between microbial biomass N or potential net N mineralization and DIN. We conclude that while plant-microbial interactions may have altered the overall quantity of N that plants take up, the relationship between species' abundance and available N in monoculture was largely driven by plant N uptake in this first year of growth.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4149492?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Stephanie G Yelenik Benjamin P Colman Jonathan M Levine Janneke HilleRisLambers A mechanistic study of plant and microbial controls over R* for nitrogen in an annual grassland. PLoS ONE |
| title | A mechanistic study of plant and microbial controls over R* for nitrogen in an annual grassland. |
| title_full | A mechanistic study of plant and microbial controls over R* for nitrogen in an annual grassland. |
| title_fullStr | A mechanistic study of plant and microbial controls over R* for nitrogen in an annual grassland. |
| title_full_unstemmed | A mechanistic study of plant and microbial controls over R* for nitrogen in an annual grassland. |
| title_short | A mechanistic study of plant and microbial controls over R* for nitrogen in an annual grassland. |
| title_sort | mechanistic study of plant and microbial controls over r for nitrogen in an annual grassland |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4149492?pdf=render |
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