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Root traits and plasticity differences explain complementarity between co-existing species in phosphorus-limited grassland

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Abstract

Background and Aims

The complementarity and selection effects are important in the diversity-productivity relationship. The diversity of functional traits among species has an important effect on complementarity. However, it remains to be explored which root functional traits play a central role in explaining biomass production and whether the variation in trait plasticity caused by environmental changes affects the interspecific complementarity effects.

Methods

We characterized three leaf and 10 root traits related to P acquisition in four temperate grassland species with various resource foraging strategies in a study featuring monocultures and two-species mixtures in a greenhouse with two P-limited (20 mg P kg−1 soil as C6H6Na12O24P6 or KH2PO4) and one P-adequate (200 mg P kg−1 soil as KH2PO4) environments.

Results

Majority of mixed communities produced significant net biodiversity and complementarity effects that varied among species combinations and P supplies. In the two P-limited treatments, the functional dispersion of single root traits (root volume, root diameter, root:shoot ratio, or exudation of acid phosphatase or organic acid anions) and plasticity difference in single traits (root length, root volume, root surface area, or exudation of organic acid anions) among the species explained the variation in the complementarity effect. However, the difference in the multi-trait space based on all 13 traits and their plasticity had no correlation with the complementarity effect regardless of P supply.

Conclusion

Our results suggested that differences in key root traits and plasticity among species played an important role in driving complementarity effects between plant species.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (32271576 and 32071506).

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (32271576, 32071506 and 31972957).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Grassland Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Hui Ji & Jingying Jing

  2. Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Na Zhou & Hongbo Li

  3. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia

    Zed Rengel

  4. Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation, 21000, Split, Croatia

    Zed Rengel

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  1. Hui Ji
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  2. Na Zhou
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  3. Zed Rengel
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  4. Jingying Jing
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  5. Hongbo Li
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Contributions

H.J. and N.Z. conceived the ideas and designed methodology; H.J. and J.J. analyzed the data. H.J., J.J., H.L. and Z.R. led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Jingying Jing or Hongbo Li.

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Ji, H., Zhou, N., Rengel, Z. et al. Root traits and plasticity differences explain complementarity between co-existing species in phosphorus-limited grassland. Plant Soil (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-024-06540-x

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