Niche dimensionality provides a general theoretical explanation for biodiversity-more niches, defined by more limiting factors, allow for more ways that species can coexist. Because plant species compete for the same set of limiting resources, theory predicts that addition of a limiting resource eliminates potential trade-offs, reducing the number of species that can coexist. Multiple nutrient limitation of plant production is common and therefore fertilization may reduce diversity by reducing the number or dimensionality of belowground limiting factors. At the same time, nutrient addition, by increasing biomass, should ultimately shift competition from belowground nutrients towards a one-dimensional competitive trade-off for light. Here we show that plant species diversity decreased when a greater number of limiting nutrients were added across 45 grassland sites from a multi-continent experimental network. The number of added nutrients predicted diversity loss, even after controlling for effects of plant biomass, and even where biomass production was not nutrient-limited. We found that elevated resource supply reduced niche dimensionality and diversity and increased both productivity and compositional turnover. Our results point to the importance of understanding dimensionality in ecological systems that are undergoing diversity loss in response to multiple global change factors. © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
Documento: | Artículo |
Título: | Addition of multiple limiting resources reduces grassland diversity |
Autor: | Harpole, W.S.; Sullivan, L.L.; Lind, E.M.; Firn, J.; Adler, P.B.; Borer, E.T.; Chase, J.; Fay, P.A.; Hautier, Y.; Hillebrand, H.; MacDougall, A.S.; Seabloom, E.W.; Williams, R.; Bakker, J.D.; Cadotte, M.W.; Chaneton, E.J.; Chu, C.; Cleland, E.E.; D'Antonio, C.; Davies, K.F.; Gruner, D.S.; Hagenah, N.; Kirkman, K.; Knops, J.M.H.; La Pierre, K.J.; McCulley, R.L.; Moore, J.L.; Morgan, J.W.; Prober, S.M.; Risch, A.C.; Schuetz, M.; Stevens, C.J.; Wragg, P.D. |
Filiación: | Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Permoserstrasse 15, Leipzig, 04318, Germany German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (IDiv), Deutscher Platz 5e, Leipzig, 04103, Germany Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Am Kirchtor 1, Halle (Saale), 06108, Germany Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, United States School of Earth, Environment and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Temple, TX 76502, United States Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, CH, 3584, Netherlands Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, University of Oldenburg, Schleusenstrasse 1, Wilhelmshaven, D-26381, Germany Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G2W1, Canada Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, United States School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, United States Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto-Scarborough, 1265 Military trail, Toronto, ON M1C1A4, Canada IFEVA/CONICET, Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambiente, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martín 4453, Buenos Aires, C1417DSE, Argentina SYSU-Alberta Joint Lab for Biodiversity Conservation, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China Ecology, Behavior and Evolution Section, University of California, San Diego, CA 92093, United States Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9620, United States Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, United States Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 3209, South Africa School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NB 68588, United States Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, United States School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Monash, VIC 3800, Australia Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC 3086, Australia CSIRO Land and Water, Private Bag 5, Wembley, WA 6913, Australia Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Community Ecology, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA14YQ, United Kingdom Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 165 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, United States |
Palabras clave: | biodiversity; biological production; biomass allocation; coexistence; competition (ecology); fertilization (reproduction); grassland; niche; nutrient limitation; plant community; species diversity; Article; biomass production; global change; grassland; nutrient concentration; nutrient limitation; plant community; priority journal; species coexistence; species diversity; turnover time; biodiversity; biomass; classification; drug effects; food; growth, development and aging; light; metabolism; plant; Poaceae; radiation response; fertilizer; Biodiversity; Biomass; Fertilizers; Food; Grassland; Light; Plants; Poaceae |
Año: | 2016 |
Volumen: | 537 |
Número: | 7618 |
Página de inicio: | 93 |
Página de fin: | 96 |
DOI: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature19324 |
Título revista: | Nature |
Título revista abreviado: | Nature |
ISSN: | 00280836 |
CODEN: | NATUA |
CAS: | Fertilizers |
Registro: | https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_00280836_v537_n7618_p93_Harpole |