Abstract
Background and aims
Nitrogen enrichment and biodiversity affects the stoichiometry of plants, soils, and soil microbes. However, combined effects of nitrogen addition and biodiversity on interactions among the stoichiometry of plants, soils, and soil microbes (stoichiometric networks, PSMNs) have largely been overlooked, even though PSMNs are likely critical predictors of ecosystem structure and functions.
Methods
To quantify effects of nitrogen addition and plant species richness on stoichiometric relations among plants, soils, and soil microbes, a common garden experiment with two nitrogen addition levels (0 and 6 g N m− 2 year− 1) and four plant species richness levels (1, 2, 4, and 8 species) was conducted in which those driving factors were manipulated.
Results
Nitrogen addition had minor effects on most stoichiometries of plant–soil–microbes, but plant species richness showed significant association with most stoichiometries. With nitrogen addition, increases in soil ammonium nitrogen led to a decrease in PSMNs connectivity but an increase in modularity. Plant species richness was negatively associated with network connectivity but positively correlated with modular complexity because of changes in soil nutrient availability and increased niche differentiation.
Conclusions
The findings demonstrate mechanistic links of biodiversity with the stoichiometry of plant–soil–microbes and stoichiometric networks, suggesting that biodiversity loss and resources decrease under global changes may enable a looser complexity in whole ecosystem element structure as indicated by the stoichiometric network architecture.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the staff at the Xiaotangshan Station of Institute of Grassland, Flowers and Ecology for providing logistic support in the field. This study was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (Grant No. 5232006), Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences Special Project for Innovation (Grant No. KJCX20230111), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31901173).
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CW planned and designed the research. CW and XL performed the research. CW analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript, XL, YH, RZ, and YH revised the manuscript.
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Wang, C., Hou, Y., Zheng, R. et al. Plant diversity and nitrogen addition affect the architecture of plant–soil–microbe stoichiometric networks. Plant Soil 490, 143–155 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06060-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06060-0