Intensive grassland management disrupts below ground multitrophic resource transfers in response to drought

Mathilde Chomel; Jocelyn M.  Lavallee; Nil Alvarez-Segura; Liz Baggs; Tancredi Caruso; Francisco De Castro; Mark C. Emmerson; Matthew  Magilton; Jennifer M.  Rhymes; Franciska T. De Vries; David Johnson; Richard D. Bardgett

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-34449-5

Intensive grassland management disrupts below ground multitrophic resource transfers in response to drought

Mathilde Chomel^*, Jocelyn M. Lavallee, Nil Alvarez-Segura, Liz Baggs, Tancredi Caruso , Francisco De Castro, Mark C. Emmerson , Matthew Magilton, Jennifer M. Rhymes, Franciska T. De Vries, David Johnson, Richard D. Bardgett

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Modification of soil food webs by land management may alter the response of
ecosystem processes to climate extremes, but empirical support is limited and the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here we quantify how grassland management modifies the transfer of recent photosynthates and soil nitrogen through plants and soil food webs during a postdrought period in a controlled field experiment, using in situ 13C and 15N pulse-labelling in intensively and extensively managed fields. We show that intensive management decrease
plant carbon (C) capture and its transfer through components of food webs and soil respiration compared to extensive management. We observe a legacy effect of drought on C transfer pathways mainly in intensively managed grasslands, by increasing plant C assimilation but decreasing its transfer to roots, bacteria and Collembola. Our work provides insight into the interactive effects of grassland management and drought on C transfer pathways, and highlights that capture and rapid transfer of photosynthates through multi-trophic networks are- key for maintaining grassland resistance to drought.

Original language	English
Article number	6991
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	13
Early online date	16 Nov 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34449-5
Publication status	Published - 16 Nov 2022

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

grassland
plant-soil interaction
pulse-labelling
root-derived C
Collembola
Acari
microorganisms
soil biodiversity
stable isotope

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10.1038/s41467-022-34449-5

s41467-022-34449-5 (1)Final published version, 1.79 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

Cite this

Chomel, M., Lavallee, J. M., Alvarez-Segura, N., Baggs, L., Caruso , T., De Castro, F., Emmerson , M. C., Magilton, M., Rhymes, J. M., De Vries, F. T., Johnson, D., & Bardgett, R. D. (2022). Intensive grassland management disrupts below ground multitrophic resource transfers in response to drought. Nature Communications, 13, 1-12. Article 6991. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34449-5

@article{2bc8a2acad0545f2adc9d10ce31efe6c,

title = "Intensive grassland management disrupts below ground multitrophic resource transfers in response to drought",

abstract = "Modification of soil food webs by land management may alter the response ofecosystem processes to climate extremes, but empirical support is limited and the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here we quantify how grassland management modifies the transfer of recent photosynthates and soil nitrogen through plants and soil food webs during a postdrought period in a controlled field experiment, using in situ 13C and 15N pulse-labelling in intensively and extensively managed fields. We show that intensive management decrease plant carbon (C) capture and its transfer through components of food webs and soil respiration compared to extensive management. We observe a legacy effect of drought on C transfer pathways mainly in intensively managed grasslands, by increasing plant C assimilation but decreasing its transfer to roots, bacteria and Collembola. Our work provides insight into the interactive effects of grassland management and drought on C transfer pathways, and highlights that capture and rapid transfer of photosynthates through multi-trophic networks are- key for maintaining grassland resistance to drought. ",

keywords = "grassland, plant-soil interaction, pulse-labelling, root-derived C, Collembola, Acari, microorganisms, soil biodiversity, stable isotope",

author = "Mathilde Chomel and Lavallee, {Jocelyn M.} and Nil Alvarez-Segura and Liz Baggs and Tancredi Caruso and {De Castro}, Francisco and Emmerson, {Mark C.} and Matthew Magilton and Rhymes, {Jennifer M.} and {De Vries}, {Franciska T.} and David Johnson and Bardgett, {Richard D.}",

note = "Funding Information: This study was supported by a consortium grant from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Soil Security Programme led by R.D.B., with component grants NE/M017028/1 to R.D.B. and F.d.V., NE/M01701X/2 to D.J. and E.M.B. and NE/M017036/1 to T.C. and M.E. We are very grateful to the landowners and farmers for allowing us to perform our experiment and sample their fields. We also thank Lucy Frotin and Juliette Papelard for help in the laboratory and field, H. Stott for help with isotope analyses, L. Harrold for plant and NO isotope analysis, B. Thornton and G. Martin for the PLFA and soil fauna isotope analysis, T. Balanant for the map figure, and C. Collins for his support as coordinator of the NERC Soil Security Programme. 2 Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s).",

year = "2022",

month = nov,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-022-34449-5",

language = "English",

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journal = "Nature Communications",

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AU - Chomel, Mathilde

AU - Lavallee, Jocelyn M.

AU - Alvarez-Segura, Nil

AU - Baggs, Liz

AU - Caruso , Tancredi

AU - De Castro, Francisco

AU - Emmerson , Mark C.

AU - Magilton, Matthew

AU - Rhymes, Jennifer M.

AU - De Vries, Franciska T.

AU - Johnson, David

AU - Bardgett, Richard D.

N1 - Funding Information: This study was supported by a consortium grant from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Soil Security Programme led by R.D.B., with component grants NE/M017028/1 to R.D.B. and F.d.V., NE/M01701X/2 to D.J. and E.M.B. and NE/M017036/1 to T.C. and M.E. We are very grateful to the landowners and farmers for allowing us to perform our experiment and sample their fields. We also thank Lucy Frotin and Juliette Papelard for help in the laboratory and field, H. Stott for help with isotope analyses, L. Harrold for plant and NO isotope analysis, B. Thornton and G. Martin for the PLFA and soil fauna isotope analysis, T. Balanant for the map figure, and C. Collins for his support as coordinator of the NERC Soil Security Programme. 2 Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

PY - 2022/11/16

Y1 - 2022/11/16

N2 - Modification of soil food webs by land management may alter the response ofecosystem processes to climate extremes, but empirical support is limited and the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here we quantify how grassland management modifies the transfer of recent photosynthates and soil nitrogen through plants and soil food webs during a postdrought period in a controlled field experiment, using in situ 13C and 15N pulse-labelling in intensively and extensively managed fields. We show that intensive management decrease plant carbon (C) capture and its transfer through components of food webs and soil respiration compared to extensive management. We observe a legacy effect of drought on C transfer pathways mainly in intensively managed grasslands, by increasing plant C assimilation but decreasing its transfer to roots, bacteria and Collembola. Our work provides insight into the interactive effects of grassland management and drought on C transfer pathways, and highlights that capture and rapid transfer of photosynthates through multi-trophic networks are- key for maintaining grassland resistance to drought.

AB - Modification of soil food webs by land management may alter the response ofecosystem processes to climate extremes, but empirical support is limited and the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here we quantify how grassland management modifies the transfer of recent photosynthates and soil nitrogen through plants and soil food webs during a postdrought period in a controlled field experiment, using in situ 13C and 15N pulse-labelling in intensively and extensively managed fields. We show that intensive management decrease plant carbon (C) capture and its transfer through components of food webs and soil respiration compared to extensive management. We observe a legacy effect of drought on C transfer pathways mainly in intensively managed grasslands, by increasing plant C assimilation but decreasing its transfer to roots, bacteria and Collembola. Our work provides insight into the interactive effects of grassland management and drought on C transfer pathways, and highlights that capture and rapid transfer of photosynthates through multi-trophic networks are- key for maintaining grassland resistance to drought.

KW - grassland

KW - plant-soil interaction

KW - pulse-labelling

KW - root-derived C

KW - Collembola

KW - Acari

KW - microorganisms

KW - soil biodiversity

KW - stable isotope

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-022-34449-5

DO - 10.1038/s41467-022-34449-5

M3 - Article

C2 - 36385003

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 13

SP - 1

EP - 12

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 6991

ER -

Intensive grassland management disrupts below ground multitrophic resource transfers in response to drought

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Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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