{"id":2673,"date":"2020-11-30T10:58:23","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T10:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jenaexperiment.uni-jena.de\/?p=2673"},"modified":"2020-12-01T09:15:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T09:15:24","slug":"new-publication-from-lange-et-al-in-journal-of-ecology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/2020\/11\/30\/new-publication-from-lange-et-al-in-journal-of-ecology\/","title":{"rendered":"New publication from Lange et al. in Journal of Ecology: Plant diversity enhances production and downward transport of biodegradable dissolved organic matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"justify\">Plant diversity is an important driver of belowground  ecosystem functions, such as root growth, soil organic matter (SOM)  storage, and microbial metabolism, mainly by influencing the  interactions between plant roots and soil. Dissolved organic matter  (DOM), as the most mobile form of SOM, plays a crucial role for a  multitude of soil processes that are central for ecosystem functioning.  Thus, DOM is likely to be an important mediator of plant diversity  effects on soil processes. However, the relationships between plant  diversity and DOM have not been studied so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/cms\/asset\/f1331200-24dd-47c0-9be5-94285e90a536\/jec13556-toc-0001-m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"220\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"justify\">We investigated the mechanisms underlying plant  diversity effects on concentrations of DOM using continuous soil water  sampling across 6 years and 62 plant communities in a long\u2010term  grassland biodiversity experiment in Jena, Germany. Furthermore, we  investigated plant diversity effects on the molecular properties of DOM  in a subset of the samples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"justify\">Although DOM concentrations were highly variable over  the course of the year with highest concentrations in summer and autumn,  we found that DOM concentrations consistently increased with plant  diversity across seasons. The positive plant diversity effect on DOM  concentrations was mainly mediated by increased microbial activity and  newly sequestered carbon in topsoil. However, the effect of soil  microbial activity on DOM concentrations differed between seasons,  indicating DOM consumption in winter and spring, and DOM production in  summer and autumn. Furthermore, we found increased contents of small and  easily decomposable DOM molecules reaching deeper soil layers with high  plant diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-46.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2674\" width=\"370\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-46.png 601w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/image-46-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 370px) 100vw, 370px\" \/><figcaption>SEM for Summer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"justify\"><em>Synthesis.<\/em> Our findings suggest that plant  diversity enhances the continuous downward transport of DOM in multiple  ways. On the one hand, higher plant diversity results in higher DOM  concentrations, on the other hand, this DOM is less degraded. The  present study indicates, for the first time, that higher plant diversity  enhances the downward transport of dissolved molecules that likely  stimulate soil development in deeper layers and therefore increase soil  fertility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4>Reference:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"justify\">Lange, M., Roth, V.\u2010N., Eisenhauer, N., Roscher, C., Dittmar, T.,  Fischer, C., Gonz\u00e1lez Mac\u00e9, O., Hildebrandt, A., Milcu, A., Mommer, L.,  Oram, N.J., Ravenek, J., Scheu, S., Schmid, B., Strecker, T., Wagg, C.,  Weigelt, A. and Gleixner, G. (2020),   Plant diversity enhances production and downward transport of biodegradable dissolved organic matter. <em>J Ecol<\/em>.  2020; 00: 1\u2013 14. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/1365-2745.13556\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/1365-2745.13556<\/a>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plant diversity is an important driver of belowground ecosystem functions, such as root growth, soil organic matter (SOM) storage, and microbial metabolism, mainly by influencing the interactions between plant roots&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2673"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2687,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions\/2687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}