Herbivory and nutrients shape grassland soil seed banks
Creators: name: Sullivan, Lauren L.
name: Eskelinen, Anu
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Fertilization
Herbivory
seedbank
plant community data
global changes

description: Anthropogenic nutrient enrichment and shifts in herbivory can lead to dramatic changes in the composition and diversity of aboveground plant communities which, in turn, can alter cryptic biodiversity storage, seed banks, in the soil. We used data from seven Nutrient Network grassland sites on four continents, encompassing a range of climatic and environmental conditions, to test the joint effects of fertilization and aboveground mammalian herbivory on seed banks and on the similarity between aboveground plant communities and seed banks. Fertilization decreased plant species richness and diversity in seed banks, and homogenized composition between aboveground and seed bank communities. Fertilization increased seed bank abundance especially in the presence of herbivores, while this effect was smaller in the absence of herbivores. Our findings highlight that nutrient enrichment can weaken the temporal storage effect as a diversity maintaining mechanism and that herbivory needs to be considered when assessing nutrient enrichment effects on seed bank abundance.
description: We use R and R Studio to run these files. All are open source.Funding provided by: Academy of Finland<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002341<br>Award Number: 297191Funding provided by: National Science Foundation<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001<br>Award Number: NSF-DEB-1042132Funding provided by: National Science Foundation<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001<br>Award Number: NSF-DEB-1234162Funding provided by: National Science Foundation<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001<br>Award Number: NSF-DEB-1831944Funding provided by: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100011357<br>Award Number: DG-0001-13Funding provided by: National Natural Science Foundation of China<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001809<br>Award Number: 31170494Funding provided by: East China University of Science and Technology<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003021<br>Award Number: DHBK2019103Funding provided by: Flexpool grant*<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: <br>Award Number: 34600565-11Funding provided by: NA*<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: <br>Award Number: PICT-2014-1109Funding provided by: NA*<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: <br>Award Number: UBACyT-20020170100191BAFunding provided by: NA*<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: <br>Award Number: UBACyT-20020190100212BAFunding provided by: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL<br>Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100015742<br>Award Number: visiting research fellowship
description: There are several datasets associated with this work. A dataset that contains plant community composition data, in two parts A seedbank dataset that was collected from sites, seeds were grown from the soil, counted and identified. An aboveground plant community dataset where plant cover was collected in m<sup>2</sup> quadrats. Within these quadrats plants were identied to the lowest taxonomic unit, and then the percent cover was estimated a plot information dataset that contains all the treatment data for each plot across all the sites in the experiment A dataset that contains biomass sorted to functional group for each plot in the dataset. Biomass was collected in two 0.1 m<sup>2</sup> plots, combined, sorted to functional group (forbs, graminoids, legumes and litter), then scaled to the m<sup>2</sup> scale.