changes in plant species richness induce functional shifts in soil nematode communities in experimental grassland植物物种丰富度的变化引起功能性实验草原土壤线虫群落的变化.pdfVIP

Changes in Plant Species Richness Induce Functional Shifts in Soil Nematode Communities in Experimental Grassland 1 2 3 3 4 Nico Eisenhauer *, Varvara D. Migunova , Michael Ackermann , Liliane Ruess , Stefan Scheu 1 Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States of America, 2 K.I. Skryabin All–Russian Institute of Helminthology, Moscow, ¨ Russia, 3 Humboldt University Berlin, Institute of Biology, Berlin, Germany, 4 Georg August University Gottingen, J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, ¨ Gottingen, Germany Abstract Background: Changes in plant diversity may induce distinct changes in soil food web structure and accompanying soil feedbacks to plants. However, knowledge of the long-term consequences of plant community simplification for soil animal food webs and functioning is scarce. Nematodes, the most abundant and diverse soil Metazoa, represent the complexity of soil food webs as they comprise all major trophic groups and allow calculation of a number of functional indices. Methodology/Principal Findings: We studied the functional composition of nematode communities three and five years after establishment of a grassland plant diversity experiment (Jena Experiment). In response to plant community simplification common nematode species disappeared and pronounced functional shifts in community structure occurred. The relevance of the fungal energy channel was higher in spring 2007 than in autumn 2005, particularly in species-rich plant assemblages. This resulted in a significant positive relationship between plant species richness