Abstract
Background and aims
Increased atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition under global climate change is known to reduce plant species richness in terrestrial ecosystems, with potentially important implications for ecosystem function and processes. However, knowledge gaps remain in our understanding of how N deposition affects the different aspects of plant community diversity (e.g., species, functional, and phylogenetic diversity) and how these impacts propagate to affect ecosystem multifunctionality.
Methods
Here, we investigated plant species, functional and phylogenetic diversity along a nitrogen gradient (0, 0.5, 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 g N m−2 yr−1) in a desert steppe. In addition, ecosystem multifunctionality was determined by eight functions to assess the relationship between plant community diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality.
Results
We showed that N addition increased plant functional diversity, but not species and phylogenetic diversity. Along the nitrogen addition gradient, the ecosystem multifunctionality increased first and then decreased which peaked at an addition rate of 24 g·m−2·yr−1. Importantly, functional diversity was positively correlated with ecosystem multifunctionality. Furthermore, the structural equation model showed that N addition increased ecosystem multifunctionality both directly and by increasing functional diversity.
Conclusion
The positive relationships between MF and functional diversity suggest that the change and distribution of plant functional traits are beneficial for complementary utilization of N, thus maintaining ecosystem multifunctionality. The superiority of functional diversity over species and phylogenetic diversity highlights an important role of functional diversity in regulating ecosystem functioning to N addition.
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Data availability
All data included in this study are available upon request by contact with the corresponding author.
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Funding
This work was financially supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research program (No. 2019QZKK0305) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42071140).
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Xiaoan Zuo designed this experiment; Aixia Guo, Xiangyun Li, Ping Yue, Shenglong Zhao and Peng Lv contributed significantly to analysis and manuscript preparation; Ya Hu performed the data analyses and wrote the manuscript.
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Hu, Y., Guo, A., Li, X. et al. Multi-trait functional diversity predicts ecosystem multifunctionality under nitrogen addition in a desert steppe. Plant Soil 491, 33–44 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05731-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05731-8