Climate modifies response of non-native and native species richness to nutrient enrichment.

Habacuc Flores-Moreno, Peter B Reich, Eric M Lind, Lauren L Sullivan, Eric W Seabloom, Laura Yahdjian, Andrew S MacDougall, Lara G Reichmann, Juan Alberti, Selene Báez, Jonathan D Bakker, Marc W Cadotte, Maria C Caldeira, Enrique J Chaneton, Carla M D'Antonio, Philip A Fay, Jennifer Firn, Nicole Hagenah, W Stanley Harpole, Oscar Iribarne, Kevin P Kirkman, Johannes M H Knops, Kimberly J La Pierre, Ramesh Laungani, Andrew D B Leakey, Rebecca L McCulley, Joslin L Moore, Jesus Pascual, Elizabeth T Borer

Journal: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 2017;371(1694):20150273

PMID: 27114575

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Abstract

Ecosystem eutrophication often increases domination by non-natives and causes displacement of native taxa. However, variation in environmental conditions may affect the outcome of interactions between native and non-native taxa in environments where nutrient supply is elevated. We examined the interactive effects of eutrophication, climate variability and climate average conditions on the success of native and non-native plant species using experimental nutrient manipulations replicated at 32 grassland sites on four continents. We hypothesized that effects of nutrient addition would be greatest where climate was stable and benign, owing to reduced niche partitioning. We found that the abundance of non-native species increased with nutrient addition independent of climate; however, nutrient addition increased non-native species richness and decreased native species richness, with these effects dampened in warmer or wetter sites. Eutrophication also altered the time scale in which grassland invasion responded to climate, decreasing the importance of long-term climate and increasing that of annual climate. Thus, climatic conditions mediate the responses of native and non-native flora to nutrient enrichment. Our results suggest that the negative effect of nutrient addition on native abundance is decoupled from its effect on richness, and reduces the time scale of the links between climate and compositional change.

Address: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA [email protected].; Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales 2751, Australia.; Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA.; IFEVA-CONICET and Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1417 Buenos Aires, Argentina.; Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1.; USDA-ARS Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory, Temple, TX, TX 76502, USA.; Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Mar del Plata 7600, Argentina.; Consorcio para el Desarrollo Sostenible de la Ecoregión Andina (CONDESAN), Quito, Ecuador.; School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto-Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1C 2M2.; Centro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal.; Environmental Studies Program, University of CA, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.; School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.; School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.; Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Am Kirchtor 1, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany.; School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.; Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.; Biology Department, Doane College, Crete, NE 68333, USA.; Department of Plant Biology and Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.; Department of Plant and Soil Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0091, USA.; School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.

DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0273

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MeSH Terms: Biota, Climate, Climate Change, Eutrophication, Grassland, Introduced Species, Micronutrients, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Plant Physiological Phenomena, Potassium