TY  - JOUR
A1  - Meyer, Sebastian Tobias
A1  - Ptacnik, Robert
A1  - Hillebrand, Helmut
A1  - Bessler, Holger
A1  - Buchmann, Nina
A1  - Ebeling, Anne
A1  - Eisenhauer, Nico
A1  - Engels, Christof
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Halle, Stefan
A1  - Klein, Alexandra-Maria
A1  - Oelmann, Yvonne
A1  - Roscher, Christiane
A1  - Rottstock, Tanja
A1  - Scherber, Christoph
A1  - Scheu, Stefan
A1  - Schmid, Bernhard
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Temperton, Vicky M.
A1  - Tscharntke, Teja
A1  - Voigt, Winfried
A1  - Weigelt, Alexandra
A1  - Wilcke, Wolfgang
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
T1  - Biodiversity-multifunctionality relationships depend on identity and number of measured functions
JF  - Nature Ecology & Evolution
N2  - Biodiversity ensures ecosystem functioning and provisioning of ecosystem services, but it remains unclear how biodiversity-ecosystem multifunctionality relationships depend on the identity and number of functions considered. Here, we demonstrate that ecosystem multifunctionality, based on 82 indicator variables of ecosystem functions in a grassland biodiversity experiment, increases strongly with increasing biodiversity. Analysing subsets of functions showed that the effects of biodiversity on multifunctionality were stronger when more functions were included and that the strength of the biodiversity effects depended on the identity of the functions included. Limits to multifunctionality arose from negative correlations among functions and functions that were not correlated with biodiversity. Our findings underline that the management of ecosystems for the protection of biodiversity cannot be replaced by managing for particular ecosystem functions or services and emphasize the need for specific management to protect biodiversity. More plant species from the experimental pool of 60 species contributed to functioning when more functions were considered. An individual contribution to multifunctionality could be demonstrated for only a fraction of the species.
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0391-4
SN  - 2397-334X
VL  - 2
IS  - 1
SP  - 44
EP  - 49
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schall, Peter
A1  - Gossner, Martin M.
A1  - Heinrichs, Steffi
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Jung, Kirsten
A1  - Baumgartner, Vanessa
A1  - Blaser, Stefan
A1  - Böhm, Stefan
A1  - Buscot, Francois
A1  - Daniel, Rolf
A1  - Goldmann, Kezia
A1  - Kaiser, Kristin
A1  - Kahl, Tiemo
A1  - Lange, Markus
A1  - Müller, Jörg Hans
A1  - Overmann, Jörg
A1  - Renner, Swen C.
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Sikorski, Johannes
A1  - Tschapka, Marco
A1  - Türke, Manfred
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
A1  - Wemheuer, Bernd
A1  - Wubet, Tesfaye
A1  - Ammer, Christian
T1  - The impact of even-aged and uneven-aged forest management on regional biodiversity of multiple taxa in European beech forests
JF  - Journal of applied ecology : an official journal of the British Ecological Society
N2  - 1. For managed temperate forests, conservationists and policymakers favour fine-grained uneven-aged (UEA) management over more traditional coarse-grained even-aged (EA) management, based on the assumption that within-stand habitat heterogeneity enhances biodiversity. There is, however, little empirical evidence to support this assumption. We investigated for the first time how differently grained forest management systems affect the biodiversity of multiple above- and below-ground taxa across spatial scales. 2. We sampled 15 taxa of animals, plants, fungi and bacteria within the largest contiguous beech forest landscape of Germany and classified them into functional groups. Selected forest stands have been managed for more than a century at different spatial grains. The EA (coarse-grained management) and UEA (fine-grained) forests are comparable in spatial arrangement, climate and soil conditions. These were compared to forests of a nearby national park that have been unmanaged for at least 20years. We used diversity accumulation curves to compare -diversity for Hill numbers D-0 (species richness), D-1 (Shannon diversity) and D-2 (Simpson diversity) between the management systems. Beta diversity was quantified as multiple-site dissimilarity. 3. Gamma diversity was higher in EA than in UEA forests for at least one of the three Hill numbers for six taxa (up to 77%), while eight showed no difference. Only bacteria showed the opposite pattern. Higher -diversity in EA forests was also found for forest specialists and saproxylic beetles. 4. Between-stand -diversity was higher in EA than in UEA forests for one-third (all species) and half (forest specialists) of all taxa, driven by environmental heterogeneity between age-classes, while -diversity showed no directional response across taxa or for forest specialists. 5. Synthesis and applications. Comparing EA and uneven-aged forest management in Central European beech forests, our results show that a mosaic of different age-classes is more important for regional biodiversity than high within-stand heterogeneity. We suggest reconsidering the current trend of replacing even-aged management in temperate forests. Instead, the variability of stages and stand structures should be increased to promote landscape-scale biodiversity.
KW  - beta diversity
KW  - forest specialists
KW  - gamma diversity
KW  - heterogeneity
KW  - Hill numbers
KW  - saproxylic beetles
KW  - spatial grain
KW  - species accumulation curve
KW  - species richness
KW  - species turnover
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12950
SN  - 0021-8901
SN  - 1365-2664
VL  - 55
IS  - 1
SP  - 267
EP  - 278
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Heinrichs, Steffi
A1  - Ammer, Christian
A1  - Mund, Martina
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Budde, Sabine
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Mueller, Joerg
A1  - Schoening, Ingo
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Schmidt, Wolfgang
A1  - Weckesser, Martin
A1  - Schall, Peter
T1  - Landscape-Scale Mixtures of Tree Species are More Effective than Stand-Scale Mixtures for Biodiversity of Vascular Plants, Bryophytes and Lichens
JF  - Forests
N2  - Tree species diversity can positively affect the multifunctionality of forests. This is why conifer monocultures of Scots pine and Norway spruce, widely promoted in Central Europe since the 18th and 19th century, are currently converted into mixed stands with naturally dominant European beech. Biodiversity is expected to benefit from these mixtures compared to pure conifer stands due to increased abiotic and biotic resource heterogeneity. Evidence for this assumption is, however, largely lacking. Here, we investigated the diversity of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens at the plot (alpha diversity) and at the landscape (gamma diversity) level in pure and mixed stands of European beech and conifer species (Scots pine, Norway spruce, Douglas fir) in four regions in Germany. We aimed to identify compositions of pure and mixed stands in a hypothetical forest landscape that can optimize gamma diversity of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens within regions. Results show that gamma diversity of the investigated groups is highest when a landscape comprises different pure stands rather than tree species mixtures at the stand scale. Species mainly associated with conifers rely on light regimes that are only provided in pure conifer forests, whereas mixtures of beech and conifers are more similar to beech stands. Combining pure beech and pure conifer stands at the landscape scale can increase landscape level biodiversity and conserve species assemblages of both stand types, while landscapes solely composed of stand scale tree species mixtures could lead to a biodiversity reduction of a combination of investigated groups of 7 up to 20%.
KW  - Fagus sylvatica
KW  - Pinus sylvestris
KW  - Picea abies
KW  - Pseudotsuga menziesii
KW  - forest management
KW  - tree species diversity
KW  - forest conversion
KW  - gamma diversity
KW  - landscape scale
KW  - Biodiversity Exploratories
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3390/f10010073
SN  - 1999-4907
VL  - 10
IS  - 1
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Meyer, Sebastian T.
A1  - Ebeling, Anne
A1  - Eisenhauer, Nico
A1  - Hertzog, Lionel
A1  - Hillebrand, Helmut
A1  - Milcu, Alexandru
A1  - Pompe, Sven
A1  - Abbas, Maike
A1  - Bessler, Holger
A1  - Buchmann, Nina
A1  - De Luca, Enrica
A1  - Engels, Christof
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Gleixner, Gerd
A1  - Hudewenz, Anika
A1  - Klein, Alexandra-Maria
A1  - de Kroon, Hans
A1  - Leimer, Sophia
A1  - Loranger, Hannah
A1  - Mommer, Liesje
A1  - Oelmann, Yvonne
A1  - Ravenek, Janneke M.
A1  - Roscher, Christiane
A1  - Rottstock, Tanja
A1  - Scherber, Christoph
A1  - Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael
A1  - Scheu, Stefan
A1  - Schmid, Bernhard
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Staudler, Andrea
A1  - Strecker, Tanja
A1  - Temperton, Vicky
A1  - Tscharntke, Teja
A1  - Vogel, Anja
A1  - Voigt, Winfried
A1  - Weigelt, Alexandra
A1  - Wilcke, Wolfgang
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
T1  - Effects of biodiversity strengthen over time as ecosystem functioning declines at low and increases at high biodiversity
JF  - Ecosphere : the magazine of the International Ecology University
KW  - biodiversity ecosystem functioning (BEF)
KW  - ecosystem processes
KW  - grassland
KW  - mechanism
KW  - plant productivity
KW  - plant species richness
KW  - temporal effects
KW  - trophic interactions
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1619
SN  - 2150-8925
VL  - 7
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Soliveres, Santiago
A1  - Maestre, Fernando T.
A1  - Ulrich, Werner
A1  - Manning, Peter
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Bowker, Matthew A.
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel
A1  - Quero, Jose L.
A1  - Schöning, Ingo
A1  - Gallardo, Antonio
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Socher, Stephanie A.
A1  - Garcia-Gomez, Miguel
A1  - Ochoa, Victoria
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Allan, Eric
T1  - Intransitive competition is widespread in plant communities and maintains their species richness
JF  - Ecology letters
N2  - Intransitive competition networks, those in which there is no single best competitor, may ensure species coexistence. However, their frequency and importance in maintaining diversity in real-world ecosystems remain unclear. We used two large data sets from drylands and agricultural grasslands to assess: (1) the generality of intransitive competition, (2) intransitivity-richness relationships and (3) effects of two major drivers of biodiversity loss (aridity and land-use intensification) on intransitivity and species richness. Intransitive competition occurred in >65% of sites and was associated with higher species richness. Intransitivity increased with aridity, partly buffering its negative effects on diversity, but was decreased by intensive land use, enhancing its negative effects on diversity. These contrasting responses likely arise because intransitivity is promoted by temporal heterogeneity, which is enhanced by aridity but may decline with land-use intensity. We show that intransitivity is widespread in nature and increases diversity, but it can be lost with environmental homogenisation.
KW  - Aridity
KW  - biodiversity
KW  - coexistence
KW  - drylands
KW  - land use
KW  - mesic grasslands
KW  - rock-paper-scissors game
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12456
SN  - 1461-023X
SN  - 1461-0248
VL  - 18
IS  - 8
SP  - 790
EP  - 798
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Allan, Eric
A1  - Bossdorf, Oliver
A1  - Dormann, Carsten F.
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Gossner, Martin M.
A1  - Tscharntke, Teja
A1  - Blüthgen, Nico
A1  - Bellach, Michaela
A1  - Birkhofer, Klaus
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Böhm, Stefan
A1  - Börschig, Carmen
A1  - Chatzinotas, Antonis
A1  - Christ, Sabina
A1  - Daniel, Rolf
A1  - Diekötter, Tim
A1  - Fischer, Christiane
A1  - Friedl, Thomas
A1  - Glaser, Karin
A1  - Hallmann, Christine
A1  - Hodac, Ladislav
A1  - Hölzel, Norbert
A1  - Jung, Kirsten
A1  - Klein, Alexandra Maria
A1  - Klaus, Valentin H.
A1  - Kleinebecker, Till
A1  - Krauss, Jochen
A1  - Lange, Markus
A1  - Morris, E. Kathryn
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Nacke, Heiko
A1  - Pasalic, Esther
A1  - Rillig, Matthias C.
A1  - Rothenwoehrer, Christoph
A1  - Schally, Peter
A1  - Scherber, Christoph
A1  - Schulze, Waltraud X.
A1  - Socher, Stephanie A.
A1  - Steckel, Juliane
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Türke, Manfred
A1  - Weiner, Christiane N.
A1  - Werner, Michael
A1  - Westphal, Catrin
A1  - Wolters, Volkmar
A1  - Wubet, Tesfaye
A1  - Gockel, Sonja
A1  - Gorke, Martin
A1  - Hemp, Andreas
A1  - Renner, Swen C.
A1  - Schöning, Ingo
A1  - Pfeiffer, Simone
A1  - König-Ries, Birgitta
A1  - Buscot, Francois
A1  - Linsenmair, Karl Eduard
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
A1  - Fischer, Markus
T1  - Interannual variation in land-use intensity enhances grassland multidiversity
JF  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
N2  - Although temporal heterogeneity is a well-accepted driver of biodiversity, effects of interannual variation in land-use intensity (LUI) have not been addressed yet. Additionally, responses to land use can differ greatly among different organisms; therefore, overall effects of land-use on total local biodiversity are hardly known. To test for effects of LUI (quantified as the combined intensity of fertilization, grazing, and mowing) and interannual variation in LUI (SD in LUI across time), we introduce a unique measure of whole-ecosystem biodiversity, multidiversity. This synthesizes individual diversity measures across up to 49 taxonomic groups of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria from 150 grasslands. Multidiversity declined with increasing LUI among grasslands, particularly for rarer species and aboveground organisms, whereas common species and belowground groups were less sensitive. However, a high level of interannual variation in LUI increased overall multidiversity at low LUI and was even more beneficial for rarer species because it slowed the rate at which the multidiversity of rare species declined with increasing LUI. In more intensively managed grasslands, the diversity of rarer species was, on average, 18% of the maximum diversity across all grasslands when LUI was static over time but increased to 31% of the maximum when LUI changed maximally over time. In addition to decreasing overall LUI, we suggest varying LUI across years as a complementary strategy to promote biodiversity conservation.
KW  - biodiversity loss
KW  - agricultural grasslands
KW  - Biodiversity Exploratories
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1312213111
SN  - 0027-8424
VL  - 111
IS  - 1
SP  - 308
EP  - 313
PB  - National Acad. of Sciences
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gossner, Martin M.
A1  - Pasalic, Esther
A1  - Lange, Markus
A1  - Lange, Patricia
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Hessenmöller, Dominik
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Socher, Stephanie A.
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
T1  - Differential responses of herbivores and herbivory to management in temperate Eeuropean beech
JF  - PLoS one
N2  - Forest management not only affects biodiversity but also might alter ecosystem processes mediated by the organisms, i.e. herbivory the removal of plant biomass by plant-eating insects and other arthropod groups. Aiming at revealing general relationships between forest management and herbivory we investigated aboveground arthropod herbivory in 105 plots dominated by European beech in three different regions in Germany in the sun-exposed canopy of mature beech trees and on beech saplings in the understorey. We separately assessed damage by different guilds of herbivores, i.e. chewing, sucking and scraping herbivores, gall-forming insects and mites, and leaf-mining insects. We asked whether herbivory differs among different forest management regimes (unmanaged, uneven-aged managed, even-aged managed) and among age-classes within even-aged forests. We further tested for consistency of relationships between regions, strata and herbivore guilds. On average, almost 80% of beech leaves showed herbivory damage, and about 6% of leaf area was consumed. Chewing damage was most common, whereas leaf sucking and scraping damage were very rare. Damage was generally greater in the canopy than in the understorey, in particular for chewing and scraping damage, and the occurrence of mines. There was little difference in herbivory among differently managed forests and the effects of management on damage differed among regions, strata and damage types. Covariates such as wood volume, tree density and plant diversity weakly influenced herbivory, and effects differed between herbivory types. We conclude that despite of the relatively low number of species attacking beech; arthropod herbivory on beech is generally high. We further conclude that responses of herbivory to forest management are multifaceted and environmental factors such as forest structure variables affecting in particular microclimatic conditions are more likely to explain the variability in herbivory among beech forest plots.
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0104876
SN  - 1932-6203
VL  - 9
IS  - 8
PB  - PLoS
CY  - San Fransisco
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Heinze, Eric
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Hessenmöller, Dominik
A1  - Klenk, Bernd
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Seele, Carolin
A1  - Socher, Stephanie
A1  - Halle, Stefan
T1  - Habitat use of large ungulates in northeastern Germany in relation to forest management
JF  - Forest ecology and management
N2  - Estimating large herbivore density has been a major area of research in recent decades. Previous studies monitoring ungulate density, however, focused mostly on determining animal abundance, and did not interpret animal distribution in relation to habitat parameters. We surveyed large ungulates in the Biodiversity Exploratory Schorfheide-Chorin using faecal pellet group counts. This allowed us to explore the link between relative ungulate abundance, habitat use, and browsing damage on trees in a region with several types of forest, including unharvested and age-class beech forests, as well as age-class pine forests. Our results demonstrate that roe deer and fallow deer relative abundance is negatively correlated with large tree cover, and positively correlated with the cover of small shrubs (Rubus spec., Vaccinium spec.), and winter food supply. Habitat use of roe deer and fallow deer, as estimated by counting faecal pellet groups, revealed a preference for mature pine forests, and avoidance of deciduous forests. This differential habitat use is explained by different distributions of high quality food resources during winter. The response of deer to understory cover differed between roe deer and fallow deer at high cover percentages. The amount of browsing damage we observed on coniferous trees was not consistent with the relative deer abundance. Browsing damage was consistently higher on most deciduous trees, except for beech saplings which sustained less damage when roe deer density was low. Because roe deer is a highly selective feeder, it was reported to affect tree diversity by feeding only on trees with high nutritional value. Consequently, we propose that managing the number of all deer species by hunting is necessary to allow successful forest regeneration. Such an adjustment to deer numbers would need to account for both current tree diversity and alternative food resources. Our findings may be applicable to other forest landscapes in northeastern Germany including mature pine stands and differently harvested deciduous forests.
KW  - Large ungulates
KW  - Faecal pellet group count
KW  - Forest management
KW  - Browsing damage
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2010.10.022
SN  - 0378-1127
VL  - 261
IS  - 2
SP  - 288
EP  - 296
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Blüthgen, Nico
A1  - Dormann, Carsten F.
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Klaus, Valentin H.
A1  - Kleinebecker, Till
A1  - Hoelzel, Norbert
A1  - Alt, Fabian
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Gockel, Sonja
A1  - Hemp, Andreas
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Nieschulze, Jens
A1  - Renner, Swen C.
A1  - Schöning, Ingo
A1  - Schumacher, Uta
A1  - Socher, Stephanie A.
A1  - Wells, Konstans
A1  - Birkhofer, Klaus
A1  - Buscot, Francois
A1  - Oelmann, Yvonne
A1  - Rothenwöhrer, Christoph
A1  - Scherber, Christoph
A1  - Tscharntke, Teja
A1  - Weiner, Christiane N.
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Kalko, Elisabeth K. V.
A1  - Linsenmair, Karl Eduard
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
T1  - A quantitative index of land-use intensity in grasslands integrating mowing, grazing and fertilization
JF  - Basic and applied ecology : Journal of the Gesellschaft für Ökologie
N2  - Land use is increasingly recognized as a major driver of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in many current research projects. In grasslands, land use is often classified by categorical descriptors such as pastures versus meadows or fertilized versus unfertilized sites. However, to account for the quantitative variation of multiple land-use types in heterogeneous landscapes, a quantitative, continuous index of land-use intensity (LUI) is desirable. Here we define such a compound, additive LUI index for managed grasslands including meadows and pastures. The LUI index summarizes the standardized intensity of three components of land use, namely fertilization, mowing, and livestock grazing at each site. We examined the performance of the LUI index to predict selected response variables on up to 150 grassland sites in the Biodiversity Exploratories in three regions in Germany(Alb, Hainich, Schorlheide). We tested the average Ellenberg nitrogen indicator values of the plant community, nitrogen and phosphorus concentration in the aboveground plant biomass, plant-available phosphorus concentration in the top soil, and soil C/N ratio, and the first principle component of these five response variables.
 The LUI index significantly predicted the principal component of all five response variables, as well as some of the individual responses. Moreover, vascular plant diversity decreased significantly with LUI in two regions (Alb and Hainich).
 Inter-annual changes in management practice were pronounced from 2006 to 2008, particularly due to variation in grazing intensity. This rendered the selection of the appropriate reference year(s) an important decision for analyses of land-use effects, whereas details in the standardization of the index were of minor importance. We also tested several alternative calculations of a LUI index, but all are strongly linearly correlated to the proposed index.
 The proposed LUI index reduces the complexity of agricultural practices to a single dimension and may serve as a baseline to test how different groups of organisms and processes respond to land use. In combination with more detailed analyses, this index may help to unravel whether and how land-use intensities, associated disturbance levels or other local or regional influences drive ecological processes.
KW  - Agro-ecosystems
KW  - Biodiversity exploratories
KW  - Grassland management
KW  - Land-use impacts
KW  - Livestock density
KW  - Meadows
KW  - Nitrogen
KW  - Pastures
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2012.04.001
SN  - 1439-1791
VL  - 13
IS  - 3
SP  - 207
EP  - 220
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Jena
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Birkhofer, Klaus
A1  - Schöning, Ingo
A1  - Alt, Fabian
A1  - Herold, Nadine
A1  - Klarner, Bernhard
A1  - Maraun, Mark
A1  - Marhan, Sven
A1  - Oelmann, Yvonne
A1  - Wubet, Tesfaye
A1  - Yurkov, Andrey
A1  - Begerow, Dominik
A1  - Berner, Doreen
A1  - Buscot, Francois
A1  - Daniel, Rolf
A1  - Diekötter, Tim
A1  - Ehnes, Roswitha B.
A1  - Erdmann, Georgia
A1  - Fischer, Christiane
A1  - Fösel, Baerbel
A1  - Groh, Janine
A1  - Gutknecht, Jessica
A1  - Kandeler, Ellen
A1  - Lang, Christa
A1  - Lohaus, Gertrud
A1  - Meyer, Annabel
A1  - Nacke, Heiko
A1  - Näther, Astrid
A1  - Overmann, Jörg
A1  - Polle, Andrea
A1  - Pollierer, Melanie M.
A1  - Scheu, Stefan
A1  - Schloter, Michael
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Schulze, Waltraud X.
A1  - Weinert, Jan
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
A1  - Wolters, Volkmar
A1  - Schrumpf, Marion
T1  - General relationships between abiotic soil properties and soil biota across spatial scales and different land-use types
JF  - PLoS one
N2  - 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.
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043292
SN  - 1932-6203
VL  - 7
IS  - 8
PB  - PLoS
CY  - San Fransisco
ER  -