Search for: All records

Summary Humans are driving biodiversity change, which also alters community functional traits. However, how changes in the functional traits of the community alter ecosystem functions—especially belowground—remains an important gap in our understanding of the consequences of biodiversity change.We test hypotheses for how the root traits of the root economics space (composed of the collaboration and conservation gradients) are associated with proxies for ecosystem functioning across grassland and forest ecosystems in both observational and experimental datasets from 810 plant communities. First, we assessed whether community‐weighted means of the root economics space traits adhered to the same trade‐offs as species‐level root traits. Then, we examined the relationships between community‐weighted mean root traits and aboveground biomass production, root standing biomass, soil fauna biomass, soil microbial biomass, decomposition of standard and plot‐specific material, ammonification, nitrification, phosphatase activity, and drought resistance.We found evidence for a community collaboration gradient but not for a community conservation gradient. Yet, links between community root traits and ecosystem functions were more common than we expected, especially for aboveground biomass, microbial biomass, and decomposition.These findings suggest that changes in species composition, which alter root trait means, will in turn affect critical ecosystem functions. 

Summary A recent study by Sugiura and coworkers reported the non‐symbiotic growth and spore production of an arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus,Rhizophagus irregularis, when the fungus received an external supply of certain fatty acids, myristates (C:14). This discovery follows the insight that AM fungi receive fatty acids from their hosts when in symbiosis. If this result holds up and can be repeated under nonsterile conditions and with a broader range of fungi, it has numerous consequences for our understanding of AM fungal ecology, from the level of the fungus, at the plant community level, and to functional consequences in ecosystems. In addition, myristate may open up several avenues from a more applied perspective, including improved fungal culture and supplementation of AM fungi or inoculum in the field. We here map these potential opportunities, and additionally offer thoughts on potential risks of this potentially new technology. Lastly, we discuss the specific research challenges that need to be overcome to come to an understanding of the potential role of myristate in AM ecology.