{"id":5591,"date":"2025-03-03T15:57:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/?p=5591"},"modified":"2025-03-03T16:00:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T16:00:48","slug":"new-publication-from-bassi-et-al-in-new-phytologist-plant-species-richness-promotes-the-decoupling-of-leaf-and-root-defence-traits-while-species-specific-responses-in-physical-and-chemical-defences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/2025\/03\/03\/new-publication-from-bassi-et-al-in-new-phytologist-plant-species-richness-promotes-the-decoupling-of-leaf-and-root-defence-traits-while-species-specific-responses-in-physical-and-chemical-defences\/","title":{"rendered":"New Publication from Bassi et al. in New Phytologist: Plant species richness promotes the decoupling of leaf and root defence traits while species-specific responses in physical and chemical defences are rare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul><li>The increased positive impact of plant diversity on  ecosystem functioning is often attributed to the accumulation of  mutualists and dilution of antagonists in diverse plant communities.  While increased plant diversity alters traits related to resource  acquisition, it remains unclear whether it reduces defence allocation,  whether this reduction differs between roots and leaves, or varies among  species.<\/li><li>To answer these questions, we assessed the effect of  plant species richness, plant species identity and their interaction on  the expression of 23 physical and chemical leaf and fine root defence  traits of 16 plant species in a 19-yr-old biodiversity experiment.<\/li><li>Only leaf mass per area, leaf and root dry matter  content and root nitrogen, traits associated with both, resource  acquisition and defence, responded consistently to species richness.  However, species richness promoted a decoupling of these defences in  leaves and fine roots, possibly in response to resource limitations in  diverse communities. Species-specific responses were rare and related to  chemical defence and mutualist collaboration, likely responding to  species-specific antagonists&#8217; dilution and mutualists&#8217; accumulation.<\/li><li>Overall, our study suggests that resource limitation  in diverse communities might mediate the relationship between plant  defence traits and antagonist dilution.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large justify\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"424\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/nph20434-fig-0001-m-1024x424.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5593\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/nph20434-fig-0001-m-1024x424.jpg 1024w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/nph20434-fig-0001-m-300x124.jpg 300w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/nph20434-fig-0001-m-768x318.jpg 768w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/nph20434-fig-0001-m-1536x636.jpg 1536w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/nph20434-fig-0001-m.jpg 2033w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption> Graphical illustration of the hypothesised reduction in defence traits  along the plant diversity gradient (a), a stronger response of fine root  compared with leaf defence traits (b) and species-specific responses of  three hypothetical species (1, 2 and 3) (c). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Reference:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Bassi, L., J. Hennecke, C. Albracht, M. D. Solbach, A. Rai, et al. (2025). Plant species richness promotes the decoupling of leaf and root defence traits while species-specific responses in physical and chemical defences are rare. New Phytologist n\/a. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/nph.20434\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/nph.20434<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The increased positive impact of plant diversity on ecosystem functioning is often attributed to the accumulation of mutualists and dilution of antagonists in diverse plant communities. While increased plant diversity&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5596,"comment_status":"closed","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\/5591"}],"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=5591"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5597,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5591\/revisions\/5597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}