TY - JOUR
T1 - Drought soil legacy overrides maternal effects on plant growth
AU - De Long, Jonathan R.
AU - Semchenko, Marina
AU - Pritchard, William J.
AU - Cordero, Irene
AU - Fry, Ellen L.
AU - Jackson, Benjamin G.
AU - Kurnosova, Ksenia
AU - Ostle, Nicholas J.
AU - Johnson, David
AU - Baggs, Elizabeth M.
AU - Bardgett, Richard D.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a grant from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (Grant BB/I009000/2), initiated and led by RDB, in collaboration with EMB, NJO and DJ. We would like to thank Deborah Ashworth, Amy Evans, Coby Tunnicliffe and Camila Cifuentes for help in the field and the laboratory. We thank two reviewers and the handling editor for helpful comments on our manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors. Functional Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society
PY - 2019/8
Y1 - 2019/8
N2 - Maternal effects (i.e. trans-generational plasticity) and soil legacies generated by drought and plant diversity can affect plant performance and alter nutrient cycling and plant community dynamics. However, the relative importance and combined effects of these factors on plant growth dynamics remain poorly understood. We used soil and seeds from an existing plant diversity and drought manipulation field experiment in temperate grassland to test maternal, soil drought and diversity legacy effects, and their interactions, on offspring plant performance of two grassland species (Alopecurus pratensis and Holcus lanatus) under contrasting glasshouse conditions. Our results showed that drought soil legacy effects eclipsed maternal effects on plant biomass. Drought soil legacy effects were attributed to changes in both abiotic (i.e. nutrient availability) and biotic soil properties (i.e. microbial carbon and enzyme activity), as well as plant root and shoot atom 15N excess. Further, plant tissue nutrient concentrations and soil microbial C:N responses to drought legacies varied between the two plant species and soils from high and low plant diversity treatments. However, these diversity effects did not affect plant root or shoot biomass. These findings demonstrate that while maternal effects resulting from drought occur in grasslands, their impacts on plant performance are likely minor relative to drought legacy effects on soil abiotic and biotic properties. This suggests that soil drought legacy effects could become increasingly important drivers of plant community dynamics and ecosystem functioning as extreme weather events become more frequent and intense with climate change. A plain language summary is available for this article.
AB - Maternal effects (i.e. trans-generational plasticity) and soil legacies generated by drought and plant diversity can affect plant performance and alter nutrient cycling and plant community dynamics. However, the relative importance and combined effects of these factors on plant growth dynamics remain poorly understood. We used soil and seeds from an existing plant diversity and drought manipulation field experiment in temperate grassland to test maternal, soil drought and diversity legacy effects, and their interactions, on offspring plant performance of two grassland species (Alopecurus pratensis and Holcus lanatus) under contrasting glasshouse conditions. Our results showed that drought soil legacy effects eclipsed maternal effects on plant biomass. Drought soil legacy effects were attributed to changes in both abiotic (i.e. nutrient availability) and biotic soil properties (i.e. microbial carbon and enzyme activity), as well as plant root and shoot atom 15N excess. Further, plant tissue nutrient concentrations and soil microbial C:N responses to drought legacies varied between the two plant species and soils from high and low plant diversity treatments. However, these diversity effects did not affect plant root or shoot biomass. These findings demonstrate that while maternal effects resulting from drought occur in grasslands, their impacts on plant performance are likely minor relative to drought legacy effects on soil abiotic and biotic properties. This suggests that soil drought legacy effects could become increasingly important drivers of plant community dynamics and ecosystem functioning as extreme weather events become more frequent and intense with climate change. A plain language summary is available for this article.
KW - plant diversity
KW - above-ground–below-ground interactions
KW - climate change
KW - climate extremes
KW - drought shelters
KW - extracellular soil enzymes
KW - mycorrhizae
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070361926&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85070361926&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.7j43s83
U2 - 10.1111/1365-2435.13341
DO - 10.1111/1365-2435.13341
M3 - Article (journal)
C2 - 31588158
AN - SCOPUS:85070361926
SN - 0269-8463
VL - 33
SP - 1400
EP - 1410
JO - Functional Ecology
JF - Functional Ecology
IS - 8
ER -
