Functional diversity of leaf nitrogen concentrations drives grassland carbon fluxes
Abstract
Little is known about the role of plant functional diversity for ecosystem‐level carbon (C) fluxes. To fill this knowledge gap, we translocated monoliths hosting communities with four and 16 sown species from a long‐term grassland biodiversity experiment (‘The Jena Experiment’) into a controlled environment facility for ecosystem research (Ecotron). This allowed quantifying the effects of plant diversity on ecosystem C fluxes as well as three parameters of C uptake efficiency (water and nitrogen use efficiencies and apparent quantum yield). By combining data on ecosystem C fluxes with vegetation structure and functional trait‐based predictors, we found that increasing plant species and functional diversity led to higher gross and net ecosystem C uptake rates. Path analyses and light response curves unravelled the diversity of leaf nitrogen concentration in the canopy as a key functional predictor of C fluxes, either directly or indirectly via LAI and aboveground biomass.
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The twelve monoliths reflected the diversity gradient of The Jena Experiment on a smaller scale.
“These 12 monoliths reflected the diversity gradient of The Jena Experiment on a smaller scale 51 .”
From Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage (2015) · cites this paper as [51]
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Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage
Lange, M., Eisenhauer, N., Sierra, C. A., Bessler, H., Engels, C., Griffiths, R. I., Mellado-Vázquez, P. G., Malik, A. A., Roy, J., Scheu, S., et al. (2015) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms7707 · Cited by 1,742 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Milcu, A., Roscher, C., Gessler, A., Bachmann, D., Gockele, A., Guderle, M., Landais, D., Piel, C., Escape, C., Devidal, S., Ravel, O., Buchmann, N., Gleixner, G., Hildebrandt, A., & Roy, J.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (DE)
- Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (DE)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- University of Freiburg (DE)
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE)
- CNRS, Ecotron ‐ UPS 3248 Campus Baillarguet 34980 Montferrier‐sur‐Lez France
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Milcu, Alexandru
- ORCID
- Venue
- Ecology Letters
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2014-01-07
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 435-444
- ISSN
- 1461-023X (ISSN-L)
- 1461-0248
- OpenAlex
- W2141395555
- Cited by
- 110
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 15.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Ecology Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-11-INBS-0001)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Keywords
- plant functional diversity, leaf nitrogen content, gross primary productivity, nitrogen use efficiency, water use efficiency, apparent quantum yield, light response curve, leaf area index, aboveground biomass, species diversity, functional traits, Jena Experiment, Ecotron
- MeSH terms
- Carbon, Plants, Water, Ecosystem, Plant Leaves, Biodiversity, Carbon Cycle
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