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The effects of long-term fertilization on the temporal stability of alpine meadow communities

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Abstract

Recent theoretical and experimental work suggests that species diversity enhances the temporal stability of communities. However, empirical support largely comes from experimental communities. The relationship between diversity and stability in natural communities, and the ones facing environmental changes in particular, has received less attention. We created a gradient of fertility in a natural alpine meadow community to test the effects of diversity and fertilization on the temporal variability of community cover and cover of component species and to determine the importance of asynchrony, portfolio effects, cover and dominance for diversity-stability relationships. Although fertilization strongly reduced species richness, the temporal stability in community cover increased with fertilization. Most species showed a decline of temporal stability in mean population cover with fertilization, but two grass species, which dominated fertilized communities after 10 years, showed an increase of stability. Detailed analysis revealed that the increased dominance of these two highly stable grass species was associated with increased community stability at high levels of fertilization. In contrast, we found little support for other mechanisms that have been proposed to contribute to community stability, such as changes in asynchrony and portfolio effects. We conclude that the presence of highly productive species that have stabilizing properties dominate fertilized assemblages and enhance ecosystem stability.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Hui Guo, Shujun Wen, Xin Chen, Peng Jia, Wei Li, Xiaoiming Shi and Chunhui Zhang for helpful discussions and comments on the manuscript; Yuanzhen Zhu, Liujie Wang, Xiao Yang, Wenxiang Hu, Junyong Li and many others of the Maqu Rangeland Workgroup for assistance in both the field and lab. This project was supported by Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No:40930533).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Arid and Grassland Ecology under Ministry of Education, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Zhongling Yang & Guozhen Du

  2. Nature Conservation and Plant Ecology group, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 3a, 6708 PB, Wageningen, the Netherlands

    Jasper van Ruijven

Authors
  1. Zhongling Yang
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  2. Jasper van Ruijven
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  3. Guozhen Du
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Correspondence to Guozhen Du.

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Responsible Editor: Jeff R. Powell.

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Table S1

A list of mean population stability at each level of fertilization (in g m-2). Calculations were restricted to species that were present in a plot in at least 9 of the 10 years. Hence, empty cells indicate the species was not present throughout the experimental period. F-values from one-way ANOVAs show the effect of fertilization on population stability. *** = P < 0.001; ** = P < 0.01; * = P < 0.05; NS = not significant. (DOC 68 kb)

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Yang, Z., van Ruijven, J. & Du, G. The effects of long-term fertilization on the temporal stability of alpine meadow communities. Plant Soil 345, 315–324 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-011-0784-0

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