@article{BirkhoferSchoeningAltetal.2012, author = {Birkhofer, Klaus and Sch{\"o}ning, Ingo and Alt, Fabian and Herold, Nadine and Klarner, Bernhard and Maraun, Mark and Marhan, Sven and Oelmann, Yvonne and Wubet, Tesfaye and Yurkov, Andrey and Begerow, Dominik and Berner, Doreen and Buscot, Francois and Daniel, Rolf and Diek{\"o}tter, Tim and Ehnes, Roswitha B. and Erdmann, Georgia and Fischer, Christiane and F{\"o}sel, Baerbel and Groh, Janine and Gutknecht, Jessica and Kandeler, Ellen and Lang, Christa and Lohaus, Gertrud and Meyer, Annabel and Nacke, Heiko and N{\"a}ther, Astrid and Overmann, J{\"o}rg and Polle, Andrea and Pollierer, Melanie M. and Scheu, Stefan and Schloter, Michael and Schulze, Ernst-Detlef and Schulze, Waltraud X. and Weinert, Jan and Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Wolters, Volkmar and Schrumpf, Marion}, title = {General relationships between abiotic soil properties and soil biota across spatial scales and different land-use types}, series = {PLoS one}, volume = {7}, journal = {PLoS one}, number = {8}, publisher = {PLoS}, address = {San Fransisco}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0043292}, pages = {8}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Very few principles have been unraveled that explain the relationship between soil properties and soil biota across large spatial scales and different land-use types. Here, we seek these general relationships using data from 52 differently managed grassland and forest soils in three study regions spanning a latitudinal gradient in Germany. We hypothesize that, after extraction of variation that is explained by location and land-use type, soil properties still explain significant proportions of variation in the abundance and diversity of soil biota. If the relationships between predictors and soil organisms were analyzed individually for each predictor group, soil properties explained the highest amount of variation in soil biota abundance and diversity, followed by land-use type and sampling location. After extraction of variation that originated from location or land-use, abiotic soil properties explained significant amounts of variation in fungal, meso-and macrofauna, but not in yeast or bacterial biomass or diversity. Nitrate or nitrogen concentration and fungal biomass were positively related, but nitrate concentration was negatively related to the abundances of Collembola and mites and to the myriapod species richness across a range of forest and grassland soils. The species richness of earthworms was positively correlated with clay content of soils independent of sample location and land-use type. Our study indicates that after accounting for heterogeneity resulting from large scale differences among sampling locations and land-use types, soil properties still explain significant proportions of variation in fungal and soil fauna abundance or diversity. However, soil biota was also related to processes that act at larger spatial scales and bacteria or soil yeasts only showed weak relationships to soil properties. We therefore argue that more general relationships between soil properties and soil biota can only be derived from future studies that consider larger spatial scales and different land-use types.}, language = {en} } @article{SollySchoeningBochetal.2014, author = {Solly, Emily F. and Sch{\"o}ning, Ingo and Boch, Steffen and Kandeler, Ellen and Marhan, Sven and Michalzik, Beate and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Zscheischler, Jakob and Trumbore, Susan E. and Schrumpf, Marion}, title = {Factors controlling decomposition rates of fine root litter in temperate forests and grasslands}, series = {Plant and soil}, volume = {382}, journal = {Plant and soil}, number = {1-2}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Dordrecht}, issn = {0032-079X}, doi = {10.1007/s11104-014-2151-4}, pages = {203 -- 218}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Fine root decomposition contributes significantly to element cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. However, studies on root decomposition rates and on the factors that potentially influence them are fewer than those on leaf litter decomposition. To study the effects of region and land use intensity on fine root decomposition, we established a large scale study in three German regions with different climate regimes and soil properties. Methods In 150 forest and 150 grassland sites we deployed litterbags (100 mu m mesh size) with standardized litter consisting of fine roots from European beech in forests and from a lowland mesophilous hay meadow in grasslands. In the central study region, we compared decomposition rates of this standardized litter with root litter collected on-site to separate the effect of litter quality from environmental factors. Standardized herbaceous roots in grassland soils decomposed on average significantly faster (24 +/- 6 \% mass loss after 12 months, mean +/- SD) than beech roots in forest soils (12 +/- 4 \%; p < 0.001). Fine root decomposition varied among the three study regions. Land use intensity, in particular N addition, decreased fine root decomposition in grasslands. The initial lignin:N ratio explained 15 \% of the variance in grasslands and 11 \% in forests. Soil moisture, soil temperature, and C:N ratios of soils together explained 34 \% of the variance of the fine root mass loss in grasslands, and 24 \% in forests. Grasslands, which have higher fine root biomass and root turnover compared to forests, also have higher rates of root decomposition. Our results further show that at the regional scale fine root decomposition is influenced by environmental variables such as soil moisture, soil temperature and soil nutrient content. Additional variation is explained by root litter quality.}, language = {en} } @article{HeroldSchoeningGutknechtetal.2014, author = {Herold, Nadine and Sch{\"o}ning, Ingo and Gutknecht, Jessica and Alt, Fabian and Boch, Steffen and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Oelmann, Yvonne and Socher, Stephanie A. and Wilcke, Wolfgang and Wubet, Tesfaye and Schrumpf, Marion}, title = {Soil property and management effects on grassland microbial communities across a latitudinal gradient in Germany}, series = {Applied soil ecology : a section of agriculture, ecosystems \& environment}, volume = {73}, journal = {Applied soil ecology : a section of agriculture, ecosystems \& environment}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0929-1393}, doi = {10.1016/j.apsoil.2013.07.009}, pages = {41 -- 50}, year = {2014}, abstract = {There is much interest in the identification of the main drivers controlling changes in the microbial community that may be related to sustainable land use. We examined the influence of soil properties and land-use intensity (N fertilization, mowing, grazing) on total phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) biomass, microbial community composition (PLFA profiles) and activities of enzymes involved in the C, N, and P cycle. These relationships were examined in the topsoil of grasslands from three German regions (Schorfheide-Chorin (SCH), Hainich-Dun (HAI), Schwabische Alb (ALB)) with different parent material. Differences in soil properties explained 60\% of variation in PLFA data and 81\% of variation in enzyme activities across regions and land-use intensities. Degraded peat soils in the lowland areas of the SCH with high organic carbon (OC) concentrations and sand content contained lower PLFA biomass, lower concentrations of bacterial, fungal, and arbuscular mycorrhizal PLFAs, but greater enzyme activities, and specific enzyme activities (per unit microbial biomass) than mineral soils in the upland areas of the HAI and ALB, which are finer textured, drier, and have smaller OC concentrations. After extraction of variation that originated from large-scale differences among regions and differences in land-use intensities between plots, soil properties still explained a significant amount of variation in PLFA data (34\%) and enzyme activities (60\%). Total PLFA biomass and all enzyme activities were mainly related to OC concentration, while relative abundance of fungi and fungal to bacterial ratio were mainly related to soil moisture. Land-use intensity (LUI) significantly decreased the soil C:N ratio. There was no direct effect of LUI on total PLFA biomass, microbial community composition, N and P cycling enzyme activities independent of study region and soil properties. In contrast, the activities and specific activities of enzymes involved in the C cycle increased significantly with LUI independent of study region and soil properties, which can have impact on soil organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling. Our findings demonstrate that microbial biomass and community composition as well as enzyme activities are more controlled by soil properties than by grassland management at the regional scale.}, language = {en} } @article{AllanManningAltetal.2015, author = {Allan, Eric and Manning, Pete and Alt, Fabian and Binkenstein, Julia and Blaser, Stefan and Bl{\"u}thgen, Nico and B{\"o}hm, Stefan and Grassein, Fabrice and H{\"o}lzel, Norbert and Klaus, Valentin H. and Kleinebecker, Till and Morris, E. Kathryn and Oelmann, Yvonne and Prati, Daniel and Renner, Swen C. and Rillig, Matthias C. and Schaefer, Martin and Schloter, Michael and Schmitt, Barbara and Sch{\"o}ning, Ingo and Schrumpf, Marion and Solly, Emily and Sorkau, Elisabeth and Steckel, Juliane and Steffen-Dewenter, Ingolf and Stempfhuber, Barbara and Tschapka, Marco and Weiner, Christiane N. and Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Werner, Michael and Westphal, Catrin and Wilcke, Wolfgang and Fischer, Markus}, title = {Land use intensification alters ecosystem multifunctionality via loss of biodiversity and changes to functional composition}, series = {Ecology letters}, volume = {18}, journal = {Ecology letters}, number = {8}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1461-023X}, doi = {10.1111/ele.12469}, pages = {834 -- 843}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Global change, especially land-use intensification, affects human well-being by impacting the delivery of multiple ecosystem services (multifunctionality). However, whether biodiversity loss is a major component of global change effects on multifunctionality in real-world ecosystems, as in experimental ones, remains unclear. Therefore, we assessed biodiversity, functional composition and 14 ecosystem services on 150 agricultural grasslands differing in land-use intensity. We also introduce five multifunctionality measures in which ecosystem services were weighted according to realistic land-use objectives. We found that indirect land-use effects, i.e. those mediated by biodiversity loss and by changes to functional composition, were as strong as direct effects on average. Their strength varied with land-use objectives and regional context. Biodiversity loss explained indirect effects in a region of intermediate productivity and was most damaging when land-use objectives favoured supporting and cultural services. In contrast, functional composition shifts, towards fast-growing plant species, strongly increased provisioning services in more inherently unproductive grasslands.}, language = {en} } @article{SoliveresvanderPlasManningetal.2016, author = {Soliveres, Santiago and van der Plas, Fons and Manning, Peter and Prati, Daniel and Gossner, Martin M. and Renner, Swen C. and Alt, Fabian and Arndt, Hartmut and Baumgartner, Vanessa and Binkenstein, Julia and Birkhofer, Klaus and Blaser, Stefan and Bl{\"u}thgen, Nico and Boch, Steffen and B{\"o}hm, Stefan and B{\"o}rschig, Carmen and Buscot, Francois and Diek{\"o}tter, Tim and Heinze, Johannes and H{\"o}lzel, Norbert and Jung, Kirsten and Klaus, Valentin H. and Kleinebecker, Till and Klemmer, Sandra and Krauss, Jochen and Lange, Markus and Morris, E. Kathryn and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Oelmann, Yvonne and Overmann, J{\"o}rg and Pasalic, Esther and Rillig, Matthias C. and Schaefer, H. Martin and Schloter, Michael and Schmitt, Barbara and Sch{\"o}ning, Ingo and Schrumpf, Marion and Sikorski, Johannes and Socher, Stephanie A. and Solly, Emily F. and Sonnemann, Ilja and Sorkau, Elisabeth and Steckel, Juliane and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf and Stempfhuber, Barbara and Tschapka, Marco and T{\"u}rke, Manfred and Venter, Paul C. and Weiner, Christiane N. and Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Werner, Michael and Westphal, Catrin and Wilcke, Wolfgang and Wolters, Volkmar and Wubet, Tesfaye and Wurst, Susanne and Fischer, Markus and Allan, Eric}, title = {Biodiversity at multiple trophic levels is needed for ecosystem multifunctionality}, series = {Nature : the international weekly journal of science}, volume = {536}, journal = {Nature : the international weekly journal of science}, publisher = {Nature Publ. Group}, address = {London}, issn = {0028-0836}, doi = {10.1038/nature19092}, pages = {456 -- +}, year = {2016}, language = {en} } @article{SoliveresManningPratietal.2016, author = {Soliveres, Santiago and Manning, Peter and Prati, Daniel and Gossner, Martin M. and Alt, Fabian and Arndt, Hartmut and Baumgartner, Vanessa and Binkenstein, Julia and Birkhofer, Klaus and Blaser, Stefan and Bluethgen, Nico and Boch, Steffen and Boehm, Stefan and Boerschig, Carmen and Buscot, Francois and Diekoetter, Tim and Heinze, Johannes and Hoelzel, Norbert and Jung, Kirsten and Klaus, Valentin H. and Klein, Alexandra-Maria and Kleinebecker, Till and Klemmer, Sandra and Krauss, Jochen and Lange, Markus and Morris, E. Kathryn and Mueller, Joerg and Oelmann, Yvonne and Overmann, J{\"o}rg and Pasalic, Esther and Renner, Swen C. and Rillig, Matthias C. and Schaefer, H. Martin and Schloter, Michael and Schmitt, Barbara and Schoening, Ingo and Schrumpf, Marion and Sikorski, Johannes and Socher, Stephanie A. and Solly, Emily F. and Sonnemann, Ilja and Sorkau, Elisabeth and Steckel, Juliane and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf and Stempfhuber, Barbara and Tschapka, Marco and Tuerke, Manfred and Venter, Paul and Weiner, Christiane N. and Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Werner, Michael and Westphal, Catrin and Wilcke, Wolfgang and Wolters, Volkmar and Wubet, Tesfaye and Wurst, Susanne and Fischer, Markus and Allan, Eric}, title = {Locally rare species influence grassland ecosystem multifunctionality}, series = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London : B, Biological sciences}, volume = {371}, journal = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London : B, Biological sciences}, publisher = {Royal Society}, address = {London}, issn = {0962-8436}, doi = {10.1098/rstb.2015.0269}, pages = {3175 -- 3185}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Species diversity promotes the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality). However, the relative functional importance of rare and common species in driving the biodiversity multifunctionality relationship remains unknown. We studied the relationship between the diversity of rare and common species (according to their local abundances and across nine different trophic groups), and multifunctionality indices derived from 14 ecosystem functions on 150 grasslands across a land use intensity (LUI) gradient. The diversity of above- and below-ground rare species had opposite effects, with rare above-ground species being associated with high levels of multifunctionality, probably because their effects on different functions did not trade off against each other. Conversely, common species were only related to average, not high, levels of multifunctionality, and their functional effects declined with LUI. Apart from the community level effects of diversity, we found significant positive associations between the abundance of individual species and multifunctionality in 6\% of the species tested. Species specific functional effects were best predicted by their response to LUI: species that declined in abundance with land use intensification were those associated with higher levels of multifunctionality. Our results highlight the importance of rare species for ecosystem multifunctionality and help guiding future conservation priorities.}, language = {en} } @article{SorkauBochBoeddinghausetal.2018, author = {Sorkau, Elisabeth and Boch, Steffen and Boeddinghaus, Runa S. and Bonkowski, Michael and Fischer, Markus and Kandeler, Ellen and Klaus, Valentin H. and Kleinebecker, Till and Marhan, Sven and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Prati, Daniel and Schoening, Ingo and Schrumpf, Marion and Weinert, Jan and Oelmann, Yvonne}, title = {The role of soil chemical properties, land use and plant diversity for microbial phosphorus in forest and grassland soils}, series = {Journal of plant nutrition and soil science = Zeitschrift f{\"u}r Pflanzenern{\"a}hrung und Bodenkunde}, volume = {181}, journal = {Journal of plant nutrition and soil science = Zeitschrift f{\"u}r Pflanzenern{\"a}hrung und Bodenkunde}, number = {2}, publisher = {Wiley-VCH}, address = {Weinheim}, issn = {1436-8730}, doi = {10.1002/jpln.201700082}, pages = {185 -- 197}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Management intensity modifies soil properties, e.g., organic carbon (C-org) concentrations and soil pH with potential feedbacks on plant diversity. These changes might influence microbial P concentrations (P-mic) in soil representing an important component of the Pcycle. Our objectives were to elucidate whether abiotic and biotic variables controlling P-mic concentrations in soil are the same for forests and grasslands, and to assess the effect of region and management on P-mic concentrations in forest and grassland soils as mediated by the controlling variables. In three regions of Germany, Schwabische Alb, Hanich-Dun, and Schorfheide-Chorin, we studied forest and grassland plots (each n=150) differing in plant diversity and land-use intensity. In contrast to controls of microbial biomass carbon (C-mic), P-mic was strongly influenced by soil pH, which in turn affected phosphorus (P) availability and thus microbial Puptake in forest and grassland soils. Furthermore, P-mic concentrations in forest and grassland soils increased with increasing plant diversity. Using structural equation models, we could show that soil C-org is the profound driver of plant diversity effects on P-mic in grasslands. For both forest and grassland, we found regional differences in P-mic attributable to differing environmental conditions (pH, soil moisture). Forest management and tree species showed no effect on P-mic due to a lack of effects on controlling variables (e.g., C-org). We also did not find management effects in grassland soils which might be caused by either compensation of differently directed effects across sites or by legacy effects of former fertilization constraining the relevance of actual practices. We conclude that variables controlling P-mic or C-mic in soil differ in part and that regional differences in controlling variables are more important for P-mic in soil than those induced by management.}, language = {en} } @article{PenoneAllanSoliveresetal.2019, author = {Penone, Caterina and Allan, Eric and Soliveres, Santiago and Felipe-Lucia, Maria R. and Gossner, Martin M. and Seibold, Sebastian and Simons, Nadja K. and Schall, Peter and van der Plas, Fons and Manning, Peter and Manzanedo, Ruben D. and Boch, Steffen and Prati, Daniel and Ammer, Christian and Bauhus, Juergen and Buscot, Francois and Ehbrecht, Martin and Goldmann, Kezia and Jung, Kirsten and Mueller, Joerg and Mueller, Joerg C. and Pena, Rodica and Polle, Andrea and Renner, Swen C. and Ruess, Liliane and Schoenig, Ingo and Schrumpf, Marion and Solly, Emily F. and Tschapka, Marco and Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Wubet, Tesfaye and Fischer, Markus}, title = {Specialisation and diversity of multiple trophic groups are promoted by different forest features}, series = {Ecology letters}, volume = {22}, journal = {Ecology letters}, number = {1}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1461-023X}, doi = {10.1111/ele.13182}, pages = {170 -- 180}, year = {2019}, abstract = {While forest management strongly influences biodiversity, it remains unclear how the structural and compositional changes caused by management affect different community dimensions (e.g. richness, specialisation, abundance or completeness) and how this differs between taxa. We assessed the effects of nine forest features (representing stand structure, heterogeneity and tree composition) on thirteen above- and belowground trophic groups of plants, animals, fungi and bacteria in 150 temperate forest plots differing in their management type. Canopy cover decreased light resources, which increased community specialisation but reduced overall diversity and abundance. Features increasing resource types and diversifying microhabitats (admixing of oaks and conifers) were important and mostly affected richness. Belowground groups responded differently to those aboveground and had weaker responses to most forest features. Our results show that we need to consider forest features rather than broad management types and highlight the importance of considering several groups and community dimensions to better inform conservation.}, language = {en} }