Early-successional vegetation changes after roadside prairie restoration modify processes related with soil functioning by changing microbial functional diversity |
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Authors: | Pablo Garcí a-Palacios,Matthew A. Bowker,Stephen J. Chapman,Santiago Soliveres,Antonio Gallardo,Cé sar Guerrero |
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Affiliation: | a Departamento de Biología y Geología, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, c/Tulipán s/n, 28933 Móstoles, Spain b Instituto de Recursos Naturales, Centro de Ciencias Medioambientales, CSIC, C/Serrano 115-bis, 28006 Madrid, Spain c Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK d Departmento de Física, Química y Sistemas Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, 41013 Sevilla, Spain e GEA (Grupo de Edafología Ambiental), Departamento de Agroquímica y Medio Ambiente, Universidad Miguel Hernández s/n, 03202 Elche, Spain |
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Abstract: | Because of their rapidly changing vegetation dynamics and harsh environmental conditions, roadside prairies in semi-arid regions represent an exceptional study system in which to investigate the effects of plant-soil interactions on ecosystem functioning. We conducted a two-year field experiment on two roadside embankments in semi-arid central Spain differing in construction age to answer the following questions: (i) do commonly used restoration treatments (hydroseeding, fertilization and irrigation) affect soil microbial functional diversity and processes related to soil functioning (basal respiration, total N and P and in situ N availability rate)? (ii) what portion of plant effects on processes related to soil functioning is mediated indirectly by microbial functional diversity? Except for a small and negative irrigation effect on the microbial functional diversity in the three-year old site, the restoration treatments employed did not affect this variable. Fertilization increased plant diversity, an effect likely mediated by the enhanced soil nutrient availability with this treatment at early stages of secondary succession. In contrast, hydroseeding did not affect processes related to soil functioning. The total effect of the plant community on these processes was higher than that of the microbial functional diversity alone, suggesting that the studied slopes are to the greater extent regulated by plants. However, soil microbes are a key proximate influence in the system, as the indirect effects of plant community on soil functioning processes mediated by soil microbes represented 37-41% of the total plant effects observed. Our results indicate that the restoration of recently built slopes can potentially be improved with treatments that promote plant compositional shifts, such as fertilization, or alter soil function, such as the enhancement of soil microbial functional diversity. They also highlight that plant-soil interactions are an important process that can be manipulated for restoration purposes in early-successional stages, especially in nutrient-poor semi-arid ecosystems. |
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Keywords: | Roadside slopes Restoration Soil functioning Plant-soil interactions Dominant species Community level physiological profiles Secondary succession |
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