Leaf nutrients, not specific leaf area, are consistent indicators of elevated nutrient inputs

Jennifer Firn, James M. McGree, Eric Harvey, Habacuc Flores-Moreno, Martin Schütz, Yvonne M. Buckley, Elizabeth T. Borer, Eric W. Seabloom, Kimberly J. La Pierre, Andrew M. MacDougall, Suzanne M. Prober, Carly J. Stevens, Lauren L. Sullivan, Erica Porter, Emma Ladouceur, Charlotte Allen, Karine H. Moromizato, John W. Morgan, W. Stanley Harpole, Yann HautierNico Eisenhauer, Justin P. Wright, Peter B. Adler, Carlos Alberto Arnillas, Jonathan D. Bakker, Lori Biederman, Arthur A.D. Broadbent, Cynthia S. Brown, Miguel N. Bugalho, Maria C. Caldeira, Elsa E. Cleland, Anne Ebeling, Philip A. Fay, Nicole Hagenah, Andrew R. Kleinhesselink, Rachel Mitchell, Joslin L. Moore, Carla Nogueira, Pablo Luis Peri, Christiane Roscher, Melinda D. Smith, Peter D. Wragg, Anita C. Risch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

83 Scopus citations

Abstract

Leaf traits are frequently measured in ecology to provide a ‘common currency’ for predicting how anthropogenic pressures impact ecosystem function. Here, we test whether leaf traits consistently respond to experimental treatments across 27 globally distributed grassland sites across 4 continents. We find that specific leaf area (leaf area per unit mass)—a commonly measured morphological trait inferring shifts between plant growth strategies—did not respond to up to four years of soil nutrient additions. Leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium concentrations increased in response to the addition of each respective soil nutrient. We found few significant changes in leaf traits when vertebrate herbivores were excluded in the short-term. Leaf nitrogen and potassium concentrations were positively correlated with species turnover, suggesting that interspecific trait variation was a significant predictor of leaf nitrogen and potassium, but not of leaf phosphorus concentration. Climatic conditions and pretreatment soil nutrient levels also accounted for significant amounts of variation in the leaf traits measured. Overall, we find that leaf morphological traits, such as specific leaf area, are not appropriate indicators of plant response to anthropogenic perturbations in grasslands.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)400-406
Number of pages7
JournalNature Ecology and Evolution
Volume3
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was conducted using data from the NutNet collaborative experiment, funded at the site scale by individual researchers, and coordinated through Research Coordination Network funding from NSF to E.B. and E.S. (NSF-DEB-1042132). We thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data and the Institute on the Environment for hosting the network meetings. This manuscript is an outcome of a workshop kindly supported by sDiv, the Synthesis Centre of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Leipzig (DFG FZT 118). M.N.B. and C.N. acknowledge funding from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through principal investigator contract IF/01171/2014 and PhD fellowship SFRH/ BD/88650/2012, respectively. Figures 1–4 and Supplementary Fig. 5 were created by Evidently So (http://evidentlyso.com.au/). The authors thank QUT’s Central Analytical Facilities (CARF), part of the Institute of Future Environment (IFE), for use of their facilities to analyse leaf nutrient concentrations.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Leaf nutrients, not specific leaf area, are consistent indicators of elevated nutrient inputs'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this