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Fertilization, soil and plant community characteristics determine soil microbial activity in managed temperate grasslands

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Abstract

Aims

Recent studies in experimental grasslands indicated that declining plant species diversity negatively affects soil microbial communities. Here, we assessed if plant diversity effects also occur in “real-world” grasslands.

Methods

We studied the influence of fertilization, soil, and plant community characteristics on soil microbial activity (microbial biomass carbon, basal respiration) in 12 managed temperate grasslands of varying plant species richness in two subsequent years.

Results

The most important variable explaining variation in microbial activity was soil water content, while positive effects of other soil characteristics (organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations) and fertilization became more important in one study year with generally moister soil conditions. Under moister conditions, fertilization also indirectly influenced soil microbial biomass C via negative effects on plant species richness, which itself increased soil microbial biomass C.

Conclusion

Our results show that variation in soil microbial activity in managed grasslands involves direct effects of fertilization as well as indirect effects through changes in plant diversity and the amount of carbon and nitrogen stored in plants and soil. These results emphasize that increased nutrient inputs in grasslands entail complex changes in ecosystem processes and indicate that mechanisms driving soil microbial activity in experimental grasslands also apply to “real-world” grasslands.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Mendl for soil sampling and measurements of soil microbial activity in 2013, S. Schroeckh for support in the laboratory and A. Thondorf for elemental analyses of plant and soil samples. We greatly acknowledge the property owners and users of the grassland sites for the permission to use their sites for our study and additional information on management. This study was supported by the German Research Foundation (RO/2397-6). Further support came from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, funded by the German Research Foundation (FZT 118).

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Author notes

  1. Peter Dietrich

    Present address: UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Physiological Diversity, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Dornburger Strasse 159, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Peter Dietrich

  2. UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Physiological Diversity, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

    Christiane Roscher

  3. UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Community Ecology, Theodor-Lieser-Strasse 4, 06120, Halle, Germany

    Tina Buchmann

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

    Simone Cesarz, Nico Eisenhauer & Christiane Roscher

  5. Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Johannisallee 21, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Simone Cesarz & Nico Eisenhauer

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  1. Peter Dietrich
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  2. Tina Buchmann
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  4. Nico Eisenhauer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Dietrich.

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Responsible Editor: Jeff R. Powell.

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Dietrich, P., Buchmann, T., Cesarz, S. et al. Fertilization, soil and plant community characteristics determine soil microbial activity in managed temperate grasslands. Plant Soil 419, 189–199 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-017-3328-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-017-3328-4

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