TY  - JOUR
A1  - Stanton, Richard A.
A1  - Boone, Wesley W.
A1  - Soto-Shoender, Jose
A1  - Fletcher, Robert J.
A1  - Blaum, Niels
A1  - McCleery, Robert A.
T1  - Shrub encroachment and vertebrate diversity
BT  - a global meta-analysis
JF  - Global ecology and biogeography : a journal of macroecology
N2  - Aim: Across the planet, grass-dominated biomes are experiencing shrub encroachment driven by atmospheric CO2 enrichment and land-use change. By altering resource structure and availability, shrub encroachment may have important impacts on vertebrate communities. We sought to determine the magnitude and variability of these effects across climatic gradients, continents, and taxa, and to learn whether shrub thinning restores the structure of vertebrate communities. Location: Worldwide. Time period: Contemporary. Major taxa studied: Terrestrial vertebrates. Methods: We estimated relationships between percentage shrub cover and the structure of terrestrial vertebrate communities (species richness, Shannon diversity and community abundance) in experimentally thinned and unmanipulated shrub-encroached grass-dominated biomes using systematic review and meta-analyses of 43 studies published from 1978 to 2016. We modelled the effects of continent, biome, mean annual precipitation, net primary productivity and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) on the relationship between shrub cover and vertebrate community structure. Results: Species richness, Shannon diversity and total abundance had no consistent relationship with shrub encroachment and experimental thinning did not reverse encroachment effects on vertebrate communities. However, some effects of shrub encroachment on vertebrate communities differed with net primary productivity, amongst vertebrate groups, and across continents. Encroachment had negative effects on vertebrate diversity at low net primary productivity. Mammalian and herpetofaunal diversity decreased with shrub encroachment. Shrub encroachment also had negative effects on species richness and total abundance in Africa but positive effects in North America. Main conclusions: Biodiversity conservation and mitigation efforts responding to shrub encroachment should focus on low-productivity locations, on mammals and herpetofauna, and in Africa. However, targeted research in neglected regions such as central Asia and India will be needed to fill important gaps in our knowledge of shrub encroachment effects on vertebrates. Additionally, our findings provide an impetus for determining the mechanisms associated with changes in vertebrate diversity and abundance in shrub-encroached grass-dominated biomes.
KW  - biodiversity
KW  - global change
KW  - grasslands
KW  - grazing
KW  - pastoral abandonment
KW  - savannas
KW  - shrub encroachment
KW  - shrub thinning
KW  - species richness
KW  - woody encroachment
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12675
SN  - 1466-822X
SN  - 1466-8238
VL  - 27
IS  - 3
SP  - 368
EP  - 379
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Estendorfer, Jennifer
A1  - Stempfhuber, Barbara
A1  - Haury, Paula
A1  - Vestergaard, Gisle
A1  - Rillig, Matthias C.
A1  - Joshi, Jasmin Radha
A1  - Schröder, Peter
A1  - Schloter, Michael
T1  - The Influence of Land Use Intensity on the Plant-Associated Microbiome of Dactylis glomerata L.
JF  - Frontiers in plant science
N2  - In this study, we investigated the impact of different land use intensities (LUI) on the root-associated microbiome of Dactylis glomerata (orchardgrass). For this purpose, eight sampling sites with different land use intensity levels but comparable soil properties were selected in the southwest of Germany. Experimental plots covered land use levels from natural grassland up to intensively managed meadows. We used 16S rRNA gene based barcoding to assess the plant-associated community structure in the endosphere, rhizosphere and bulk soil of D. glomerata. Samples were taken at the reproductive stage of the plant in early summer. Our data indicated that roots harbor a distinct bacterial community, which clearly differed from the microbiome of the rhizosphere and bulk soil. Our results revealed Pseudomonadaceae, Enterobacteriaceae and Comamonadaceae as the most abundant endophytes independently of land use intensity. Rhizosphere and bulk soil were dominated also by Proteobacteria, but the most abundant families differed from those obtained from root samples. In the soil, the effect of land use intensity was more pronounced compared to root endophytes leading to a clearly distinct pattern of bacterial communities under different LUI from rhizosphere and bulk soil vs. endophytes. Overall, a change of community structure on the plant-soil interface was observed, as the number of shared OTUs between all three compartments investigated increased with decreasing land use intensity. Thus, our findings suggest a stronger interaction of the plant with its surrounding soil under low land use intensity. Furthermore, the amount and quality of available nitrogen was identified as a major driver for shifts in the microbiome structure in all compartments.
KW  - Dactylis glomerata
KW  - land use change
KW  - endophytes
KW  - rhizosphere
KW  - soil microbiome
KW  - biodiversity
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.00930
SN  - 1664-462X
VL  - 8
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -