How soil biodiversity influences ecosystem stability in experimental grasslands

土壤生物多样性如何影响实验草地生态系统稳定性

• 批准号: 434341960
• 负责人: Dr. Gaowen Yang
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arbeitsgruppe Ökologie der Pflanzen
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/434341960?language=en
• 关键词: How; soil; biodiversity; influences; ecosystem

Understanding the factors that determine the stability of ecosystem functioning when faced with a changing environment is a focal point in ecological research. It is becoming well established that biodiversity, especially plant diversity, is a major factor contributing to ecosystem stability. Soil biodiversity, which comprises a large part of biodiversity on Earth, is threatened by global anthropogenic changes. However, we know little about whether and how the loss of soil biodiversity influences ecosystem stability. Because it is difficult to manipulate soil biodiversity in a field study, the dilution-to-extinction approach will be used to create soil communities with a realistic gradient of species richness in this study. Grassland microcosms will be established along the soil biodiversity gradient in greenhouse experiments. Firstly, I will use a microcosm experiment to test whether soil biodiversity loss can decrease ecosystem stability through its detrimental effects on plant biomass production and the stabilizing effect of plant diversity, or increase ecosystem stability through shifting plant community composition. Ecosystem resistance, defined as the degree to which ecosystem functioning changes during a perturbation, is one important component of ecosystem stability. Secondly, I will test whether the loss of soil biodiversity can result in decreases in the resistance and resilience of multiple ecosystem functions, such as biomass production, litter decomposition, soil aggregate formation, nitrogen and phosphorus leaching and nutrient provision, to warming, drought and nitrogen deposition. This study will provide a better understanding of the links between soil biodiversity loss and ecosystem stability, which is crucial for predicting how anthropogenically induced changes in soil biodiversity will impact ecosystem stability.

了解确定生态系统在面临不断变化的环境时起作用的稳定性的因素是生态研究的焦点。已经确定的是，生物多样性，尤其是植物多样性，是导致生态系统稳定性的主要因素。土壤生物多样性包括大部分地球上的生物多样性，受到全球人为变化的威胁。但是，我们对土壤生物多样性的丧失是否以及如何影响生态系统稳定性了解一无所知。由于在野外研究中很难操纵土壤生物多样性，因此在这项研究中，将使用稀释到灭绝方法来创建具有现实的物种丰富度梯度的土壤群落。在温室实验中，将沿土壤生物多样性梯度建立草地缩影。首先，我将使用缩影实验来测试土壤生物多样性丧失是否可以通过对植物生物量产生的不利影响和植物多样性的稳定作用来降低生态系统的稳定性，或者通过改变植物群落组成来提高生态系统稳定性。生态系统抗性定义为生态系统在扰动过程中的变化程度，是生态系统稳定性的重要组成部分。其次，我将测试土壤生物多样性的丧失是否会导致多个生态系统功能的抵抗力和弹性降低，例如生物量产生，垃圾分解，土壤骨料形成，氮和磷浸出以及养分，并提供加热，干旱和氮气沉积。这项研究将更好地了解土壤生物多样性丧失与生态系统稳定性之间的联系，这对于预测人为诱导的土壤生物多样性变化将影响生态系统稳定性至关重要。