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Plant species diversity affects infiltration capacity in an experimental grassland through changes in soil properties

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Abstract

Background and aims

Soil hydraulic properties drive water distribution and availability in soil. There exists limited knowledge of how plant species diversity might influence soil hydraulic properties.

Methods

We quantified the change in infiltration capacity affected by soil structural variables (soil bulk density, porosity and organic carbon content) along a gradient of soil texture, plant species richness (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 60) and functional group composition (grasses, legumes, small herbs, tall herbs). We conducted two infiltration measurement campaigns (May and October 2012) using a hood infiltrometer.

Results

Plant species richness significantly increased infiltration capacity in the studied grasslands. Both soil porosity (or inversely bulk density) and organic carbon played an important role in mediating the plant species richness effect. Soil texture did not correlate with infiltration capacity. In spring 2012, earthworm biomass increased infiltration capacity, but this effect could not be attributed to changes in soil structural variables.

Conclusions

We experimentally identified important ecological drivers of infiltration capacity, suggesting complex interactions between plant species richness, earthworms, and soil structural variables, while showing little impact of soil texture. Changes in plant species richness may thus have significant effects on soil hydraulic properties with potential consequences for surface run-off and soil erosion.

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Acknowledgments

The Jena Experiment is funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG, FOR456) with additional support from the Max Planck Society and the University of Jena and coordinated by W.W. Weisser. We thank all the people involved in the maintenance of the experiment, infiltration measurements (in particular Franziska Guderle) and the gardeners. We thank Alexandra Weigelt, Sybille Steinbeiss, Maike Habekost, and Alexandru Milcu for providing raw data on plant community data, soil organic carbon content and earthworm biomass. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for their insights which improved the manuscript. This work was kindly supported by Helmholtz Impulse and Networking Fund through Helmholtz Interdisciplinary Graduate School for Environmental Research (HIGRADE) (Bissinger and Kolditz 2008). Anke Hildebrandt was supported by AquaDiv@Jena, a project funded by the initiative “ProExzellenz” of the German federal state of Thuringia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geosciences, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Burgweg 11, D-07749, Jena, Germany

    Christine Fischer, Jana Tischer, Sabine Attinger & Anke Hildebrandt

  2. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, PO Box 100164, 07701, Jena, Germany

    Christine Fischer, Gerd Gleixner & Anke Hildebrandt

  3. UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Community Ecology, 06120, Halle, Germany

    Christiane Roscher

  4. Institute of Ecology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Dornburger Straße 159, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Nico Eisenhauer

  5. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Nico Eisenhauer

  6. Institute for Biology, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 21-23, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Nico Eisenhauer

  7. Experimental Plant Ecology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Janneke Ravenek & Hans de Kroon

  8. UFZ, Helmholtz Centre of Environmental Research, Department of Computational Hydrosystems, Permoserstraße 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

    Sabine Attinger

  9. J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Georg August University of Göttingen, Berliner Straße 28, 37073, Göttingen, Germany

    Britta Jensen & Stefan Scheu

  10. Nature Conservation and Plant Ecology Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Liesje Mommer

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  1. Christine Fischer
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Correspondence to Christine Fischer.

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Fig. S1

Path analysis showing the relationships between plant species richness (SR), texture (sand in 0–10 cm depth), soil organic carbon content (SOC), porosity, belowground biomass (BM root in 0–5 cm depth), and infiltration capacity for the full model in a), and including earthworm biomass (only for May) in b).(GIF 47 kb)

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Fischer, C., Tischer, J., Roscher, C. et al. Plant species diversity affects infiltration capacity in an experimental grassland through changes in soil properties. Plant Soil 397, 1–16 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2373-5

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