Eco-evolutionary dynamics modulate plant responses to global change depending on plant diversity and species identity
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Curated by eLife
Evaluation Summary:
The overarching goal of this study was to identify eco-evolutionary feedbacks between plant community diversity and global change drivers. The authors aimed to test the hypothesis that a decline in species richness due to various global change drivers selects for traits that will make species more vulnerable to the further effects of these drivers, amplifying thus the initial diversity decline. This research is of prime importance to botanists, plant ecologists and ecosystem ecologists wanting to understand the effects of global change on plant diversity and productivity.
(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)
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Abstract
Global change has dramatic impacts on grassland diversity. However, little is known about how fast species can adapt to diversity loss and how this affects their responses to global change. Here, we performed a common garden experiment testing whether plant responses to global change are influenced by their selection history and the conditioning history of soil at different plant diversity levels. Using seeds of four grass species and soil samples from a 14-year-old biodiversity experiment, we grew the offspring of the plants either in their own soil or in soil of a different community, and exposed them either to drought, increased nitrogen input, or a combination of both. Under nitrogen addition, offspring of plants selected at high diversity produced more biomass than those selected at low diversity, while drought neutralized differences in biomass production. Moreover, under the influence of global change drivers, soil history, and to a lesser extent plant history, had species-specific effects on trait expression. Our results show that plant diversity modulates plant-soil interactions and growth strategies of plants, which in turn affects plant eco-evolutionary pathways. How this change affects species' response to global change and whether this can cause a feedback loop should be investigated in more detail in future studies.
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Author Response
Reviewer #1 (Public Review):
Peter Dietrich and his collaborators performed a complex experimental study aiming at exploring an interactive effect of selection history (offspring of plants grown in low- and high-diversity plots), soil origin (soil from low- and high-diversity plots) and experimental treatments (drought or nitrogen addition) on performance of four grass species. The authors did so to examine eco-evolutionary feedbacks between plant community diversity and global change drivers. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that decline in species richness due to the drivers can induce a selection regime that will select for traits that will make species more vulnerable to the further effects of global change drivers, amplifying thus the initial diversity decline. The authors indeed found that all three …
Author Response
Reviewer #1 (Public Review):
Peter Dietrich and his collaborators performed a complex experimental study aiming at exploring an interactive effect of selection history (offspring of plants grown in low- and high-diversity plots), soil origin (soil from low- and high-diversity plots) and experimental treatments (drought or nitrogen addition) on performance of four grass species. The authors did so to examine eco-evolutionary feedbacks between plant community diversity and global change drivers. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that decline in species richness due to the drivers can induce a selection regime that will select for traits that will make species more vulnerable to the further effects of global change drivers, amplifying thus the initial diversity decline. The authors indeed found that all three factors, and their interaction can affect plant performance, though the effects detected here were often species-specific.
We thank the reviewer for the positive evaluation of our study. In the revised version, we express more clearly the fact that the plant responses to global change were species-specific. We agree that this is a highly relevant finding that needs to be stressed.
Reviewer #2 (Public Review):
The authors present work from a greenhouse experiment testing the influence of plant and soil histories on seedling responses to global change. They grew seedlings of 4 grass species via seeds collected from different historical levels of plant community diversity (2 vs 6 species) as well as in home and away soil inoculum and a combination of these. The authors find that certain plant species respond differently to global change depending on the historical plant diversity (6 vs 2 species) and to a lesser extent the soil history. These effects were primarily species specific and affected plant traits rather than biomass.
Strengths of this study include the thorough experimental approach and novel question regarding how plant diversity may modulate plant-soil interactions under global change. Weaknesses of this study include weak or unclear support for several of the proposed hypotheses as well as lack of clear results to support the main conclusions and title of this paper.
We are thankful for the detailed advice to improve our manuscript. We added additional text to the introduction to better introduce our hypotheses and rephrased the title, abstract, and conclusion to better match our results.
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Evaluation Summary:
The overarching goal of this study was to identify eco-evolutionary feedbacks between plant community diversity and global change drivers. The authors aimed to test the hypothesis that a decline in species richness due to various global change drivers selects for traits that will make species more vulnerable to the further effects of these drivers, amplifying thus the initial diversity decline. This research is of prime importance to botanists, plant ecologists and ecosystem ecologists wanting to understand the effects of global change on plant diversity and productivity.
(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)
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Reviewer #1 (Public Review):
Peter Dietrich and his collaborators performed a complex experimental study aiming at exploring an interactive effect of selection history (offspring of plants grown in low- and high-diversity plots), soil origin (soil from low- and high-diversity plots) and experimental treatments (drought or nitrogen addition) on performance of four grass species. The authors did so to examine eco-evolutionary feedbacks between plant community diversity and global change drivers. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that decline in species richness due to the drivers can induce a selection regime that will select for traits that will make species more vulnerable to the further effects of global change drivers, amplifying thus the initial diversity decline. The authors indeed found that all three factors, and their …
Reviewer #1 (Public Review):
Peter Dietrich and his collaborators performed a complex experimental study aiming at exploring an interactive effect of selection history (offspring of plants grown in low- and high-diversity plots), soil origin (soil from low- and high-diversity plots) and experimental treatments (drought or nitrogen addition) on performance of four grass species. The authors did so to examine eco-evolutionary feedbacks between plant community diversity and global change drivers. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that decline in species richness due to the drivers can induce a selection regime that will select for traits that will make species more vulnerable to the further effects of global change drivers, amplifying thus the initial diversity decline. The authors indeed found that all three factors, and their interaction can affect plant performance, though the effects detected here were often species-specific.
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Reviewer #2 (Public Review):
The authors present work from a greenhouse experiment testing the influence of plant and soil histories on seedling responses to global change. They grew seedlings of 4 grass species via seeds collected from different historical levels of plant community diversity (2 vs 6 species) as well as in home and away soil inoculum and a combination of these. The authors find that certain plant species respond differently to global change depending on the historical plant diversity (6 vs 2 species) and to a lesser extent the soil history. These effects were primarily species specific and affected plant traits rather than biomass.
Strengths of this study include the thorough experimental approach and novel question regarding how plant diversity may modulate plant-soil interactions under global change. Weaknesses of …
Reviewer #2 (Public Review):
The authors present work from a greenhouse experiment testing the influence of plant and soil histories on seedling responses to global change. They grew seedlings of 4 grass species via seeds collected from different historical levels of plant community diversity (2 vs 6 species) as well as in home and away soil inoculum and a combination of these. The authors find that certain plant species respond differently to global change depending on the historical plant diversity (6 vs 2 species) and to a lesser extent the soil history. These effects were primarily species specific and affected plant traits rather than biomass.
Strengths of this study include the thorough experimental approach and novel question regarding how plant diversity may modulate plant-soil interactions under global change. Weaknesses of this study include weak or unclear support for several of the proposed hypotheses as well as lack of clear results to support the main conclusions and title of this paper.
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