Researchers

Jacques Roy ; Alexandru Milcu ; Christianne Roscher ; Dörte Bachmann ; Annette Gockele ; Markus Guderle ; Damien Landais ; Clément Piel ; Christophe Escape ; Sebastien Devidal ; Olivier Ravel ; Nina Buchmann ; Arthur Gessler ; Gerd Gleixner; Anke Hildebrandt

Publications

Milcu, A., Roscher, C., … Roy, J. (2014). Functional diversity of leaf nitrogen concentrations drives grassland carbon fluxes. Ecology Letters, 17(4), 435–444.

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Mellado-Vasquez, P. G., Lange, M., … Gleixner, G. (2016). Plant diversity generates enhanced soil microbial access to recently photosynthesized carbon in the rhizosphere. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 94, 1–33.

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Milcu, A., Eugster, W., … Buchmann, N. (2016). Plant functional diversity increases grassland productivity-related water vapor fluxes: An Ecotron and modeling approach. Ecology, 97(8), 2044–2054.

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Guderle, M., Bachmann, D., … Hildebrandt, A. (2018). Dynamic niche partitioning in root water uptake facilitates efficient water use in more diverse grassland plant communities. Functional Ecology, 32(1), 214–227.

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Roscher, C., Karlowsky, S., … Gleixner, G. (2019). Functional composition has stronger impact than species richness on carbon gain and allocation in experimental grasslands. PloS ONE, 14(1), e0204715.

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Consequences

The first experimental demonstration that biodiversity loss can impair ecosystem performance was carried out in a controlled environment facility (the Ecotron at Silwood Park, UK), and the results had a profound impact on the direction of subsequent ecological research and the conservation of natural systems [Naeem, et al. (1994), Nature 368: 734-737]. Two decades later, while there is unequivocal evidence that biodiversity loss reduces the efficiency with which ecological communities capture biologically essential resources, it remains difficult to assess the mechanisms by which species richness affects carbon (C) fluxes in the field.

We took advantage of the CNRS’s new Ecotron facility (Montpellier, France) to study the effects of plant species and functional diversity on carbon fluxes in model grasslands sampled as part of a long-term biodiversity experiment (The Jena Experiment). Among the unique features of the experimental setup is the use of a large lysimeter (2 m² and 2 m deep) combined with online and continuous measurements of carbon fluxes. We found that greater plant species richness led to increased carbon uptake by the ecosystem and improved water use efficiency during the growing season. The mechanisms by which species richness affected carbon fluxes are discussed.