Biology subjects

Hennecke, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Hennecke, J..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Plant species richness and the root economics space drive soil fungal communities

Trait-based approaches have been increasingly used to relate plants to soil microbial communities. However, the plant organs mediating this plant-microbe interaction - the roots - have been largely overlooked. The recent discovery of the root economics space offers a predictive framework for the structure of soil microbial communities, and specifically soil-borne fungal communities. Applying this novel approach, our study in a grassland plant diversity experiment reveals distinct root trait strategies at the level of the plant community. In addition to significant effects of plant species richness, we show that both axes of the root economics space - the collaboration and conservation gradient - are strong drivers of the composition of the different guilds of soil fungi, including saprotrophic, plant pathogenic, and mycorrhizal fungi. Our results illustrate that the root economics space and plant species richness jointly determine the effects of plants on fungal communities and their potential role in plant health and ecosystem functioning.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Tree growth is better explained by absorptive fine roots than transport fine roots

O_LIQuantifying plant trait variation yields insights into trade-offs inherent in the ecological strategies of plants and is the basis for a trait-based prediction of plant performance and ecosystem functioning. Although the interest in root traits has increased in recent years, we still have limited knowledge of i) whether functionally different fine roots--absorptive versus transport roots--have similar trait coordination and ii) how they help to explain plant performance, such as growth. C_LIO_LIWe measured traits of 25 European broadleaved tree species growing in a research arboretum to study i) the coordination of root traits within absorptive and transport fine roots and ii) the degree of trait-tree growth relationships. To do so, we combined a suite of morphological (root diameter, specific root length and root tissue density) and anatomical (cortex to stele ratio and arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization rate) traits for each of the absorptive and transport roots and also leaf traits (leaf mass per area, dry matter content and toughness). C_LIO_LIDespite remarkable differences in average trait values between absorptive and transport roots, our study shows that trait coordination within absorptive and transport roots is relatively equivalent. Our results also show that, for the traits we studied, tree growth is better explained by absorptive root traits than by transport root traits and is higher in species with a thinner root diameter. This suggests that variation primarily in absorptive roots affects the uptake of soil-based resources like nutrients and water and directly influences tree growth. C_LIO_LIThe significant relationship between absorptive roots and tree growth and the lack of such a relationship for transport roots highlights that roots mostly involved with resource absorption are more important in explaining tree growth than roots involved in transport. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Common soil history is more important than plant history for arbuscular mycorrhizal community assembly in an experimental grassland diversity gradient

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning strengthens with ecosystem age. However, the interplay between the plant diversity - ecosystem functioning relationship and Glomeromycotinian arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) community assembly has not yet been scrutinized in this context, despite AMFs role in plant survival and niche exploration. We study the development of AMF communities by disentangling soil- and plant-driven effects from year effects. Within a long-term grassland biodiversity experiment, the pre-existing plant communities of varying plant diversity were re-established as split plots with combinations of common plant and soil histories: split plots with neither common plant nor soil history, with only soil but no plant history, and with both common plant and soil history. We found that bulk soil AMF communities were primarily shaped by common soil history and additional common plant history had little effect. Further, the steepness of AMF diversity and plant diversity relationship did not strengthen over time, but AMF community evenness increased with common history. Specialisation of AMF towards plant species was low throughout giving no indication of AMF communities specialising or diversifying over time. The potential of bulk soil AMF as mediators of variation in plant and microbial biomass over time and hence as drivers of BEF relationships was low. Our results suggest that soil processes may be key for the build-up of plant community-specific mycorrhizal communities with likely feedback effects on ecosystem productivity, but the plant-available mycorrhizal pool in bulk soil itself does not explain the strengthening of BEF relationships over time.

microbiology↗