Ecosystem response to drought unravelling the unexplored role of plant soil fee...
Ecosystem response to drought unravelling the unexplored role of plant soil feedback
Drought is severely threatening our ecosystems and their functioning: it causes strong shifts in plant community composition that are difficult to revert. Positive feedbacks often underlie these dramatic shifts, but in many ecosys...
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Información proyecto SHIFTFEEDBACK
Duración del proyecto: 63 meses
Fecha Inicio: 2019-09-24
Fecha Fin: 2024-12-31
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Descripción del proyecto
Drought is severely threatening our ecosystems and their functioning: it causes strong shifts in plant community composition that are difficult to revert. Positive feedbacks often underlie these dramatic shifts, but in many ecosystems drought causes fast-growing species to increase. These species are not only vulnerable to drought, but they also suffer negative plant-soil feedback, i.e. they change the soil microbial community in a way that keeps their own abundance in check. Thus, drought-induced shifts in plant communities do not result from positive feedbacks, unless drought changes plant-soil feedback. We know that plant-soil feedback drives plant community succession, but its role in community response to drought has never been explored. Here, I will unravel whether and how changes in plant-soil feedback underlie strong shifts in plant community composition following drought. This knowledge is crucial for mitigating the effects of drought on terrestrial ecosystems.
My objectives are:
1. Examining how drought affects plant community and soil microbial community composition and the implications for plant-soil feedback
2. Quantifying the effects of plant-plant and plant-microbial interactions on plant growth and subsequent shifts in plant community composition in response to drought
3. Disentangling the mechanisms underlying drought-induced changes in plant-soil feedback
I will address these objectives in a novel set of approaches. I will identify general patterns in plant-soil feedback across European drought experiments, and assess the role of plant-plant and plant-microbial interactions across a Dutch secondary successional gradient. In a set of targeted mesocosm experiments, I will elucidate the mechanisms underlying changes in plant-soil feedback and the consequences for plant community composition. These approaches will result in a step-change in understanding the dynamics of plant-soil interactions under drought and the consequences for ecosystem change.