General destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales

Yann Hautier; Pengfei Zhang; Michel Loreau; Kevin R. Wilcox; Eric W. Seabloom; Elizabeth T. Borer; Jarrett E.K. Byrnes; Sally E. Koerner; Kimberly J. Komatsu; Jonathan S. Lefcheck; Andy Hector; Peter B. Adler; Juan Alberti; Carlos A. Arnillas; Jonathan D. Bakker; Lars A. Brudvig; Miguel N. Bugalho; Marc Cadotte; Maria C. Caldeira; Oliver Carroll; Mick Crawley; Scott L. Collins; Pedro Daleo; Laura E. Dee; Nico Eisenhauer; Anu Eskelinen; Philip A. Fay; Benjamin Gilbert; Amandine Hansar; Forest Isbell; Johannes M.H. Knops; Andrew S. MacDougall; Rebecca L. McCulley; Joslin L. Moore; John W. Morgan; Akira S. Mori; Pablo L. Peri; Edwin T. Pos; Sally A. Power; Jodi N. Price; Peter B. Reich; Anita C. Risch; Christiane Roscher; Mahesh Sankaran; Martin Schütz; Melinda Smith; Carly Stevens; Pedro M. Tognetti; Risto Virtanen; Glenda M. Wardle; Peter A. Wilfahrt; Shaopeng Wang

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19252-4

General destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales

Yann Hautier
, Pengfei Zhang
, Michel Loreau
, Kevin R. Wilcox
, Eric W. Seabloom
, Elizabeth T. Borer
, Jarrett E.K. Byrnes
, Sally E. Koerner
, Kimberly J. Komatsu
, Jonathan S. Lefcheck
, Andy Hector
, Peter B. Adler
, Juan Alberti
, Carlos A. Arnillas
, Jonathan D. Bakker
, Lars A. Brudvig
, Miguel N. Bugalho
, Marc Cadotte
, Maria C. Caldeira
, Oliver Carroll

Mick Crawley, Scott L. Collins, Pedro Daleo, Laura E. Dee, Nico Eisenhauer, Anu Eskelinen, Philip A. Fay, Benjamin Gilbert, Amandine Hansar, Forest Isbell, Johannes M.H. Knops, Andrew S. MacDougall, Rebecca L. McCulley, Joslin L. Moore, John W. Morgan, Akira S. Mori, Pablo L. Peri, Edwin T. Pos, Sally A. Power, Jodi N. Price, Peter B. Reich, Anita C. Risch, Christiane Roscher, Mahesh Sankaran, Martin Schütz, Melinda Smith, Carly Stevens, Pedro M. Tognetti, Risto Virtanen, Glenda M. Wardle, Peter A. Wilfahrt, Shaopeng Wang

Plant and Soil Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

164 Scopus citations

Abstract

Eutrophication is a widespread environmental change that usually reduces the stabilizing effect of plant diversity on productivity in local communities. Whether this effect is scale dependent remains to be elucidated. Here, we determine the relationship between plant diversity and temporal stability of productivity for 243 plant communities from 42 grasslands across the globe and quantify the effect of chronic fertilization on these relationships. Unfertilized local communities with more plant species exhibit greater asynchronous dynamics among species in response to natural environmental fluctuations, resulting in greater local stability (alpha stability). Moreover, neighborhood communities that have greater spatial variation in plant species composition within sites (higher beta diversity) have greater spatial asynchrony of productivity among communities, resulting in greater stability at the larger scale (gamma stability). Importantly, fertilization consistently weakens the contribution of plant diversity to both of these stabilizing mechanisms, thus diminishing the positive effect of biodiversity on stability at differing spatial scales. Our findings suggest that preserving grassland functional stability requires conservation of plant diversity within and among ecological communities.

Original language	English
Article number	5375
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	11
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19252-4
State	Published - Dec 1 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

Funding

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union. Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 298935 to Y.H. (with A.H. and E.W.S.). This work was generated using data from the Nutrient Network collaborative experiment, funded at the site scale by individual researchers and coordinated through Research Coordination Network funding from NSF to E.B. and E.W.S. (grant #DEB-0741952). Nitrogen fertilizer was donated to the Nutrient Network by Crop Production Services, Loveland, CO. We acknowledge support from the LTER Network Communications Office and DEB-1545288. M.L. was supported by the TULIP Laboratory of Excellence (ANR-10-LABX-41), and by the BIOSTASES Advanced Grant funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 666971). S.W. was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31988102). We thank Rita S. L. Veiga and George A. Kowalchuk for suggestions that improved the manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Seventh Framework Programme
European Commission
H2020 European Research Council
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	666971, 298935
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia I.P.	Incentivo/SAU/LA0001/2013
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)	31988102
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program	0741952
LTER Network Communications Office	DEB-1545288
TULIP Laboratory of Excellence	ANR-10-LABX-41

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy

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10.1038/s41467-020-19252-4

Cite this

Hautier, Y., Zhang, P., Loreau, M., Wilcox, K. R., Seabloom, E. W., Borer, E. T., Byrnes, J. E. K., Koerner, S. E., Komatsu, K. J., Lefcheck, J. S., Hector, A., Adler, P. B., Alberti, J., Arnillas, C. A., Bakker, J. D., Brudvig, L. A., Bugalho, M. N., Cadotte, M., Caldeira, M. C., ... Wang, S. (2020). General destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales. Nature Communications, 11(1), Article 5375. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19252-4

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title = "General destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales",

abstract = "Eutrophication is a widespread environmental change that usually reduces the stabilizing effect of plant diversity on productivity in local communities. Whether this effect is scale dependent remains to be elucidated. Here, we determine the relationship between plant diversity and temporal stability of productivity for 243 plant communities from 42 grasslands across the globe and quantify the effect of chronic fertilization on these relationships. Unfertilized local communities with more plant species exhibit greater asynchronous dynamics among species in response to natural environmental fluctuations, resulting in greater local stability (alpha stability). Moreover, neighborhood communities that have greater spatial variation in plant species composition within sites (higher beta diversity) have greater spatial asynchrony of productivity among communities, resulting in greater stability at the larger scale (gamma stability). Importantly, fertilization consistently weakens the contribution of plant diversity to both of these stabilizing mechanisms, thus diminishing the positive effect of biodiversity on stability at differing spatial scales. Our findings suggest that preserving grassland functional stability requires conservation of plant diversity within and among ecological communities.",

author = "Yann Hautier and Pengfei Zhang and Michel Loreau and Wilcox, \{Kevin R.\} and Seabloom, \{Eric W.\} and Borer, \{Elizabeth T.\} and Byrnes, \{Jarrett E.K.\} and Koerner, \{Sally E.\} and Komatsu, \{Kimberly J.\} and Lefcheck, \{Jonathan S.\} and Andy Hector and Adler, \{Peter B.\} and Juan Alberti and Arnillas, \{Carlos A.\} and Bakker, \{Jonathan D.\} and Brudvig, \{Lars A.\} and Bugalho, \{Miguel N.\} and Marc Cadotte and Caldeira, \{Maria C.\} and Oliver Carroll and Mick Crawley and Collins, \{Scott L.\} and Pedro Daleo and Dee, \{Laura E.\} and Nico Eisenhauer and Anu Eskelinen and Fay, \{Philip A.\} and Benjamin Gilbert and Amandine Hansar and Forest Isbell and Knops, \{Johannes M.H.\} and MacDougall, \{Andrew S.\} and McCulley, \{Rebecca L.\} and Moore, \{Joslin L.\} and Morgan, \{John W.\} and Mori, \{Akira S.\} and Peri, \{Pablo L.\} and Pos, \{Edwin T.\} and Power, \{Sally A.\} and Price, \{Jodi N.\} and Reich, \{Peter B.\} and Risch, \{Anita C.\} and Christiane Roscher and Mahesh Sankaran and Martin Sch{\"u}tz and Melinda Smith and Carly Stevens and Tognetti, \{Pedro M.\} and Risto Virtanen and Wardle, \{Glenda M.\} and Wilfahrt, \{Peter A.\} and Shaopeng Wang",

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Hautier, Y, Zhang, P, Loreau, M, Wilcox, KR, Seabloom, EW, Borer, ET, Byrnes, JEK, Koerner, SE, Komatsu, KJ, Lefcheck, JS, Hector, A, Adler, PB, Alberti, J, Arnillas, CA, Bakker, JD, Brudvig, LA, Bugalho, MN, Cadotte, M, Caldeira, MC, Carroll, O, Crawley, M, Collins, SL, Daleo, P, Dee, LE, Eisenhauer, N, Eskelinen, A, Fay, PA, Gilbert, B, Hansar, A, Isbell, F, Knops, JMH, MacDougall, AS, McCulley, RL, Moore, JL, Morgan, JW, Mori, AS, Peri, PL, Pos, ET, Power, SA, Price, JN, Reich, PB, Risch, AC, Roscher, C, Sankaran, M, Schütz, M, Smith, M, Stevens, C, Tognetti, PM, Virtanen, R, Wardle, GM, Wilfahrt, PA & Wang, S 2020, 'General destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales', Nature Communications, vol. 11, no. 1, 5375. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19252-4

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AU - Hautier, Yann

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AU - Loreau, Michel

AU - Wilcox, Kevin R.

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AU - Borer, Elizabeth T.

AU - Byrnes, Jarrett E.K.

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AU - Brudvig, Lars A.

AU - Bugalho, Miguel N.

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AU - Caldeira, Maria C.

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AU - McCulley, Rebecca L.

AU - Moore, Joslin L.

AU - Morgan, John W.

AU - Mori, Akira S.

AU - Peri, Pablo L.

AU - Pos, Edwin T.

AU - Power, Sally A.

AU - Price, Jodi N.

AU - Reich, Peter B.

AU - Risch, Anita C.

AU - Roscher, Christiane

AU - Sankaran, Mahesh

AU - Schütz, Martin

AU - Smith, Melinda

AU - Stevens, Carly

AU - Tognetti, Pedro M.

AU - Virtanen, Risto

AU - Wardle, Glenda M.

AU - Wilfahrt, Peter A.

AU - Wang, Shaopeng

PY - 2020/12/1

Y1 - 2020/12/1

N2 - Eutrophication is a widespread environmental change that usually reduces the stabilizing effect of plant diversity on productivity in local communities. Whether this effect is scale dependent remains to be elucidated. Here, we determine the relationship between plant diversity and temporal stability of productivity for 243 plant communities from 42 grasslands across the globe and quantify the effect of chronic fertilization on these relationships. Unfertilized local communities with more plant species exhibit greater asynchronous dynamics among species in response to natural environmental fluctuations, resulting in greater local stability (alpha stability). Moreover, neighborhood communities that have greater spatial variation in plant species composition within sites (higher beta diversity) have greater spatial asynchrony of productivity among communities, resulting in greater stability at the larger scale (gamma stability). Importantly, fertilization consistently weakens the contribution of plant diversity to both of these stabilizing mechanisms, thus diminishing the positive effect of biodiversity on stability at differing spatial scales. Our findings suggest that preserving grassland functional stability requires conservation of plant diversity within and among ecological communities.

AB - Eutrophication is a widespread environmental change that usually reduces the stabilizing effect of plant diversity on productivity in local communities. Whether this effect is scale dependent remains to be elucidated. Here, we determine the relationship between plant diversity and temporal stability of productivity for 243 plant communities from 42 grasslands across the globe and quantify the effect of chronic fertilization on these relationships. Unfertilized local communities with more plant species exhibit greater asynchronous dynamics among species in response to natural environmental fluctuations, resulting in greater local stability (alpha stability). Moreover, neighborhood communities that have greater spatial variation in plant species composition within sites (higher beta diversity) have greater spatial asynchrony of productivity among communities, resulting in greater stability at the larger scale (gamma stability). Importantly, fertilization consistently weakens the contribution of plant diversity to both of these stabilizing mechanisms, thus diminishing the positive effect of biodiversity on stability at differing spatial scales. Our findings suggest that preserving grassland functional stability requires conservation of plant diversity within and among ecological communities.

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DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-19252-4

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SN - 2041-1723

VL - 11

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

IS - 1

M1 - 5375

ER -

General destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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