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At 6 typical habitats of the SW Baltic Sea, macrozoobenthic samples were collected in January 2016 with Van Veen grab (sample area 0.1 m2, data is averaged per station based on 3 replicates at every station) and from short cores (sample area 0.00785 m2, data per core) after completing the pore-water analysis or incubation. Sediment was sieved using a 1.0 mm sieve mesh size and samples were preserved in 4% buffered formaldehyde–seawater solution. In the laboratory, the organisms were sorted, identified to species level, counted and weighted. The nomenclature was checked with World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS Editorial Board, 2018). Abundance and biomass data were standardized to an area of 1 m2. Ash-free dry weight (AFDW) biomass was estimated from the wet weight using species-specific conversion factors from the in-house list of the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Warnemünde. Environmental characteristics (including salinity, oxygen content, depth, sediment granulometry and organic content) were measured at each sampling event parallel to the collection of grab and cores samples. Data is explored in Gogina, M., Lipka, M., Woelfel, J., Liu, B., Morys, C., Böttcher, M.E., Zettler, M. L., 2018. In search of a field-based relationship between benthic macrofauna and biogeochemistry in a modern brackish coastal sea. Front. Mar. Sci. 5: 489, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2018.00489 Keywords: benthic macrofauna, ecosystem functioning, nutrient fluxes, sediment biogeochemistry, pore-water gradients, Baltic Sea.
Climate change will substantially alter native forest ecosystem dynamics. Increased storm frequencies and severities and longer summer droughts are major threats for the provision of ecosystem goods and services (EG&S) from forests. To adapt forests stands to climate change, two silvicultural measures have been proposed: (i) the promotion of mixed stands and (ii) the integration of exotic tree species that are expected to be adapted to future climatic conditions (in particular from areas with a drier and warmer climate). Non-native tree species as well as mixed stands may be better suited for the expected future climate due to a higher resistance and resilience against disturbances. The combination of mixed stands that consist of native and non-native tree species, may present a suitable compromise between the desired effects on growth and vitality of forests and potential undesired effects on the composition of native species associations and ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling. Despite high potential benefits of mixed stands, planted forests around the globe are mainly monocultures. To foster the provision of EG&S, more knowledge about the mechanistic functioning of mixtures as well as trade-offs between the provision of different EG&S from mixed and pure stands is necessary. Interdisciplinary research projects are necessary that address effects of mixtures consisting of native and non-native tree species on the composition of various taxonomic groups, ecosystem processes and their consequences for the provision of EG&S. The interdisciplinary research training group 'RTG2300: Enrichment of European beech forests with conifers' addresses this knowledge gap by studying the mechanistic and supplying ecosystem functioning of forest stands of native European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), Norway spruce (Picea abies L. KARST) and non-native Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii MIRB. FRANCO) in Northern Germany. The stand types in this project include pure stands of all three species and mixed beech/spruce and beech/Douglas-fir stands. Each stand type is represented at eight locations resulting in a total of forty study plots. Twenty out of the forty research plots of 0.25 ha size are located in the southern part of the study area in the Solling and Harz mountain ranges, whereas the other twenty plots were selected in the northern part of the study area in the North German plain. The southern plots are located at higher altitudes with lower mean annual temperatures and a higher annual precipitation than those in the north. The stands on the northern plots have less favorable growing conditions than those on the southern plots, in particular due to less precipitation. Here, we provide basic datasets that were collected by the RTG2300. This includes data about location, topography and climate of the research plots, data of the tree inventories and data about the density and spatial structure of the stands that were derived from the tree inventory data.
This dataset provides information about the study design, topography, geographic location and climatic conditions of the research plots of the interdisciplinary research training group 'RTG2300: Enrichment of European beech forests with conifers'. In each of forty forest stands, plots of 0.25 ha in size (called regular measurement plots, RMPs) were established in fall 2017 across the federal state of Lower Saxony, northwest Germany. The plots are grouped in eight so-called 'quintets'. Each quintet comprises five plots representing different forest stand types: three pure plots (European beech (Fagus sylvatica), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Norway spruce (Picea abies)) and two beech-conifer mixtures (beech-Douglas-fir and beech-Norway spruce). Four of the eight quintets are located in the southern part of the study area in the Solling and Harz mountain ranges. The other four quintets are located in the northern part of the study area in the North German plain. The southern plots are located in higher altitudes with lower mean annual temperatures and a higher annual precipitation. Growing conditions on the northern plots are less favorable than on the southern sites, in particular with respect to precipitation. On a subset of twenty out of the forty plots, intensive surveys such as root growth measurements, nitrogen retention analyses, or experiments on regeneration dynamics are carried out, besides the regular measurements on all plots. These intensive measurement plots (IMPs) comprise two southern and two northern quintets. Permanent, highly intensive measurements are conducted on special measurement plots (SMPs) that are a subset of 10 out of the 20 IMPs.
Nutrient loss from ecosystems has become of global major global concern as it reduces the sustainability of ecosystems and because it causes eutrophication of surface water. In this project we investigate whether soil fungi enhance ecosystem sustainability by preventing nutrient leaching loss after rainfall. Background: Leaching of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) from fertile agricultural ecosystems has become of major global concern because it causes eutrophication of surface water with adverse consequences for human health and water quality. Moreover, losses from infertile ecosystems can reduce plant productivity and ecosystem sustainability if there is no additional nutrient input. Hence, it is of critical importance to understand which mechanisms prevent nutrient loss and retain nutrients inside ecosystems. Besides lateral transport of nutrients via soil erosion and surface runoff, vertical movement through the soil profile (e.g. leaching) has been recognized as an important process contributing to nutrient loss. Until now there are no studies that tested whether mycorrhizal fungi can reduce nutrient losses. This is surprising because mycorrhizal fungi are often very abundant in the soil and play a key role in the nutrient cycle of plant communities. Mycorrhizal fungi can forage highly effectively for nutrients in the soil and, by doing so they could prevent leaching of nutrients (e.g. in winter or during periods with heavy rainfall). Aims: The following key questions are investigated in this project: 1. Can mycorrhizal fungi reduce nutrient loss from experimental grassland? 2. Can arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi reduce nutrient leaching losses at high soil fertility, low temperatures and when rainfall intensity increases? 3. Is ecosystem sustainability (measured as nutrient retention and reduced nutrient loss after rainfall) enhanced by the presence of diverse communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi? Relevance: It has been reported that the available phosphate sources will be depleted in about 50 years and some authors suggest that we will face a phosphate crisis endangering agricultural production. Thus, it is of critical importance to understand whether mycorrhizal fungi can reduce phosphorus loss from soils. Moreover, the production of nitrogen fertiliser is energetically expensive and high levels of nitrate in groundwater are of concern because they can pose a significant health risk and have a negative impact on downstream ecosystems. Hence, this shows that there is a need to better understand which factors influence the N-cycle and reduce N-losses.
Data on plant communities (biomass and relative cover of all target species), plant traits (41 different traits, measured on 59 species), and 42 ecosystem properties/functions, measured between 2003 and 2012 in the Jena Main Biodiversity experiment. In floodplain grasslands of the Saale river, near Jena (Germany) 78 20x20 m grassland plots were set up, in which combinations of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 species were sown, from a species pool of 60. Thereby, the aim was to create a gradient in plant species richness and functional composition. In each year from 2003-2012, relative cover (in %) of each target species was estimated within 3x3 m subplots. In addition, plant biomass was measured in both spring and summer. In addition, we compiled trait data for 59 of the 60 sown species, based on a combination of existing literature, pot experiments and measurements in the Jena Main Biodiversity experiment monoculture (1-species) plots. Data on 41 traits was collected. Finally, we measured in 41 different ecosystem functions in the Jena Main Biodiversity experiment. Each ecosystem function was measured in at least 3 different years between 2003 and 2012. The "R2.model.random.text[x]" (where x is a number from 1 to 40) are secondary data files, and the outcome of statistical models. In these, 100 times a random subset of 1 to 40 (out of the 41) plant traits were analysed as predictors of the 42 ecosystem functions, in order to assess how the proportion of variance in ecosystem functioning explained by traits (R2 values) depends on the number of traits analysed.
The objective of the recently established Chinese-European joint research project 'BEF China' (DFG Research Unit 891) is to analyze the influence of tree and shrub species diversity on ecosystem functioning and services in one of the most prominent diversity hotspots in the northern hemisphere. Using a pool of 96 native tree and shrub species the project will plant a total of 345.600 trees and 277.824 shrubs to establish experimental forest stands, varying in both tree and shrub species richness, on a total area of about 100 ha. A range of biodiversity and ecosystem variables will be measured to assess community dynamics and its relation to primary productivity, carbon and nitrogen storage, nutrient cycling, and prevention of soil erosion, a so-far disregarded ecosystem service in other projects but with prominent importance for this region. Cooperation partners in Europe are the University of Halle, the University of Lüneburg, the University of Tübingen and the ETH Zürich. In China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing (Botany, Ecology) and Nanjing (Soil Science) contribute to the project. Subproject 6: Soil Properties and Soil Erosion: At the Geographical Institute in Tübingen, Subproject 6 (Soil properties and soil erosion) is situated. Two process systems will be analyzed in this subproject: (a) modification of kinetic energy of precipitation by its pass through the tree canopy and the shrub layer, and (b) connection between surface runoff, sediment transport and changing intrinsic soil properties as a function of biodiversity gradients. In the framework of the Research Unit, Subproject 6 also covers spatial and pedological aspects of soil genesis, substrate characteristics, landscape development, and land use history.
This dataset contains information from a tree census on the plots of the interdisciplinary research training group 'RTG2300: Enrichment of European beech forests with conifers'. The tree cesus was carried out during winter 2017/2018 using a Field-Map system (software Version 5x; IFER - Monitoring and Mapping Solutions, Ltd.; Prague; Czech Republic). All living and dead trees with a diameter greater or equal than 7.0 cm were recorded in the 0.25 ha plots (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.923125) and in a ten meter buffer zone surrounding the plot border. Tree coordinates relative to the plot center were recorded with a laser range finder with an integrated electronic compass (TruPulse Laser 360 R, Laser Technology Inc, Centennial, USA). Tree diameters were measured with a diameter tape preferentially at 1.3 m height. If a diameter measurement at 1.3 m was not possible, the alternative height of the diameter measurement was recorded. Tree species, tree vitality (dead or alive) and tree condition ('normal', 'snag', 'hung_up', 'sloping', 'thrown', 'stump') of each tree and heights of snags were recorded.
Previous work demonstrated diversity effects on plant community productivity, stability and assembly. However, underlying mechanisms are still largely unknown. Therefore, we address such mechanisms based on the long time series of plant performance data provided by the Jena Experiment, on new experimental manipulations and on complementary data about aboveground plant-plant and plant-pathogen interactions. In work package 1, we test whether complementarity increases over time in the main and dominance experiments of the Jena Experiment. Furthermore, we compare community dynamics without and with invasion to test how community stability is related to fluctuations in plant species abundances. In a new trait-based experiment we test whether deliberately large trait differences maximize complementarity. In work package 2, we derive and compare matrices of pair-wise plant interaction coefficients from glasshouse experiments and the main and dominance experiments. We use these interaction matrices to predict diversity effects in mixtures. In work package 3, we use the invasion treatment to test whether community assembly under invasion leads to convergence of diversity and productivity of all communities, but different species composition of initially different communities.
Global environmental change is predicted to result in increased frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events, including severe droughts and intense precipitation events (IPCC, 2001; IPCC, 2007). The determination and partitioning of water use of entire ecosystems will thus gain increasing importance under future climatic conditions (IPCC 2007). Studying the effects of plant diversity on ecosystem water fluxes is also a crucial aspect of our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the response of ecosystems to global change as well as the direction and magnitude of potential feedback effects of ecosystems on the hydrological cycle and the atmosphere. However, up to now, biodiversity-ecosystem functioning studies have neglected the water cycle almost completely. In the proposed project, the controls of plant diversity (i.e., species richness and functional group richness) on ecosystem water fluxes, their partitioning into soil evaporation and transpiration as well as plant water uptake patterns will be assessed in grassland ecosystems with the following objectives: - To quantify water losses from grassland ecosystems of varying plant diversity to the atmosphere (evapotranspiration fluxes); - To partition the evapotranspiration flux into its soil evaporative and vegetation transpiration components; - to identify the environmental constraints of plant water sources as a function of plant diversity. The study will be carried out at The Jena Experiment, a large biodiversity experiment in which experimental plant community plots of varying species composition, but also species and functional group richness are studied since 2002. We propose to use micrometeorological techniques to measure the ecosystem evapotranspiration flux (ET) and partition it into vegetation transpiration (T) and soil evaporation (E) at the ecosystem level, as well as to use stable isotope analyses to identify the source water of transpiration during intensive field campaigns at times of different water availability. The expected outcomes of the project proposed are manyfold. Using an innovative combination of techniques, we can provide a proof-of-concept to a scientific community (e.g. biodiversity, population biology, plant ecology communities) that typically has little to no knowledge about the great potential of such methodology. We will obtain highly relevant data on the relationships between plant diversity and water fluxes, their component fluxes and environmental drivers, information that does not exist at the moment. Moreover, we then can assess land surface-atmosphere coupling and the impact of climate change on grassland ecosystems, one of the major land use types in Europe and globally.
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