Can root traits predict communities of soil nematodes in restored northern prairies?
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Can root traits predict communities of soil nematodes in restored northern prairies? Rafael Otfinowski
&
Victory Coffey
Received: 21 April 2020 / Accepted: 24 June 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Aims We examined how restoration affects the structure and function of grasslands belowground by relating changes in the morphology and architecture of root systems of dominant plants to the structure of soil food webs. Methods We measured changes in root traits of dominant plants (Bouteloua gracilis and Pascopyrum smithii) and related them to the diversity and feeding structure of soil nematodes across a restoration chronosequence in a mixed-grass prairie in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada. Results Root architecture and morphology of dominant grasses changed with restoration, and soil food webs in recently restored prairies centred around resources provided by roots. In contrast, food webs in a native prairie centred around the decomposition of soil organic matter and plant litter. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that changes in root traits following restoration can cascade through soil foodwebs, altering the function of restored prairies. Our study also highlights that the diversity and structure of soil nematodes can reflect changes in root traits of dominant plants. However, traits that generalize the whole root system may be insufficient to explain the
causal relationship between root feeding nematodes and their resources. Keywords Root traits . Soil nematodes . Ecosystem function . Community assembly . Grassland restoration
Introduction Understanding trait variation within species is critical to predict plant performance, community assembly, and ecosystem function (Shipley et al. 2016). Variation in traits can result from genotypic differences between species as well as phenotypic plasticity in species’ responses to changing environments (Violle et al. 2012). Although variation in plant traits along environmental gradients is better described aboveground (Shipley et al. 2006), corresponding changes in belowground traits remain poorly understood (Laliberté 2017). For many ecosystems, including grasslands, this creates an important gap in predicting the response of plant and soil communities to changing environments (Bardgett et al. 2014). For grassland communities, belowground organs of plants, including roots, contribute to key functions of ecosystems, including the sequestration of carbon,
Responsible Editor: Amandine Erktan. R. Otfinowski (*) : V. Coffey Department of Biology, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9, Canada
e-mail: [email protected]
Plant Soil
cycling of nutrients and water, and stabilizing soil to reduce erosion (Laliberté 2017). In temperate grasslands, roots and rhizomes constitute over 50% of the annual net primary productivity (De Deyn et al. 2008; Tierney and Fahey 2007) and contribute significantly to the turnover and storage of carbon in soil (Lauenroth and Gill 2003; Pinno and Wilson 2013). B
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