Speaker
Description
Ecosystem functions are influenced by various factors. While the role of biodiversity role in maintaining ecosystem functioning is widely acknowledged, there is a significant knowledge gap regarding belowground plant traits. Historically, trait-based concepts have focused mainly on aboveground traits, creating a bias and a lack of understanding of belowground traits. The recent introduction of the root economics space (RES) has improved our ability to integrate root traits into functional plant strategies and biodiversity–ecosystem functioning research. Soil mutualists and antagonists are expected to mediate diversity–productivity relationships. Given the close association of roots with the soil microbial community and the RES collaboration gradient's link with mutualistic mycorrhizal fungi, it is probable that root traits are also involved in these relationships. We hypothesize that plant diversity and root trait strategies along the collaboration and conservation axes of the RES influence the composition of soil fungal communities and ultimately ecosystem functioning. For example, we anticipate that the abundance of plant pathogenic fungi will decrease in more diverse plant communities and those with well-defended plants (associated with root traits linked to high mycorrhization ('outsourcing') and high tissue density ('slow')).
In plots of the Jena Experiment, we examined the effects of root trait gradients and plant species richness on soil fungal communities and found a significant decrease in the diversity and relative abundance of plant pathogenic fungi in plant communities with outsourcing root strategies. This highlights the central role of the root collaboration axis in shaping soil fungal communities beyond the direct link with arbuscular mycorrhiza. Changes in fungal and microbial biomass, however, are strongly determined by plant diversity and not driven by root traits.
We further analysed a global synthesis dataset on trait-functioning relationships to test how root functional strategies relate to ecosystem functioning across a broad range of systems.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
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