Relating the spatial distribution of a tall-grass to fertility islands in a temperate mountain grassland

San Emeterio Garciandía, Leticia; Durán Lázaro, María; Múgica Azpilicueta, Leire; Jiménez, Juan José; Canals Tresserras, Rosa María

Relating the spatial distribution of a tall-grass to fertility islands in a temperate mountain grassland

dc.contributor.author	San Emeterio Garciandía, Leticia
dc.contributor.author	Durán Lázaro, María
dc.contributor.author	Múgica Azpilicueta, Leire
dc.contributor.author	Jiménez, Juan José
dc.contributor.author	Canals Tresserras, Rosa María
dc.contributor.department	Agronomia, Bioteknologia eta Elikadura	eu
dc.contributor.department	Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD	en
dc.contributor.department	Agronomía, Biotecnología y Alimentación	es_ES
dc.contributor.funder	Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa	es
dc.date.accessioned	2022-04-12T06:27:02Z
dc.date.available	2022-04-12T06:27:02Z
dc.date.issued	2021
dc.description.abstract	Plant-soil feedback mechanisms influence the abundance and rarity of plant species and can favour invasive processes, including those of native species. To explore these mechanisms, we analysed correlations between spatial distributions of plant biomass and soil properties in two neighbouring grasslands at different phases of expansion of the native Eurasian tall-grass Brachypodium rupestre (Host) Roem & Schult (B. rupestre cover: >75 and 25–50%). For this, we applied spatially explicit sampling, geostatistical analysis and structural equation models (SEM) to probe causal relationships among measured variables involved in nutrient accumulation. We hypothesized that if litter accumulates as a result of reduced grazing, ‘fertility islands’ (spots of high SOM and nutrient contents) will form under B. rupestre clumps because the increase in resource inputs from litter will trigger SOM build-up and promote microbial growth. Our results show that ‘fertility islands’ of P and amino acids occurred under the patchy clumps of B. rupestre in the less invaded grassland. In addition, the SEMs indicated that nutrient accumulation was partially due to mineralization of the SOM and modulated by the soil microbial biomass. However, there was no correlation between spatial patterns of B. rupestre biomass, SOM and microbial biomass. Moreover, the SEMs explained small amounts of variance in them (SOM r2 = 0.22 and microbial biomass r2 = 0.08), suggesting that factors other than B. rupestre biomass were responsible for the high fertility below the patches. Our spatially explicit approach demonstrated that litter inputs in dense temperate grassland communities can generate ‘fertility islands’ that may favour the stability and expansion of a tall-grass invader and suggest that herbivory may enhance or inhibit this phenomenon.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	The study was funded by ‘la Caixa’ Foundation, Spain and CAN foundation, Spain (LCF/PR/PR13/51080004), the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Spanish Government (project refs. CGL2010-21963, CGL2011-29746 and CGL2017-85490-R), and Interreg Sudoe Programme, European Regional Development Fund, European-Union, Open2preserve Project (SOE2/P5/E0804). L. Múgica and M. Durán were funded through a UPNA Research Staff Training Grant.	en
dc.format.extent	12 p.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/zip	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.soilbio.2021.108455
dc.identifier.issn	0038-0717
dc.identifier.uri	https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/42687
dc.language.iso	eng	en
dc.publisher	Elsevier	en
dc.relation.ispartof	Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 163	en
dc.relation.projectID	info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICINN//CGL2011-29746/ES/
dc.relation.projectID	info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016/CGL2017-85490-R/ES/
dc.relation.publisherversion	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2021.108455
dc.rights	© 2021 The Authors. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International	en
dc.rights.accessRights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subject	Brachypodium rupestre	en
dc.subject	Fertility island	en
dc.subject	Geostatistics	en
dc.subject	Native invader	en
dc.subject	Soil function	en
dc.title	Relating the spatial distribution of a tall-grass to fertility islands in a temperate mountain grassland	en
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.type.version	info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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