Speaker
Description
Understanding how plant diversity shapes soil ecosystem functioning over time is a central challenge in biodiversity–ecosystem functioning research. Evidence from long-term experiments suggests that both the magnitude and stability of soil processes increase with biodiversity, as facilitative interactions accumulate in species-rich communities, whereas species-poor systems tend to experience stronger antagonistic feedbacks.
In this study, we examine how plant species richness influences soil microbial biomass and its temporal dynamics. We test four hypotheses: (HI) plant diversity increases the magnitude of soil microbial properties; (HII) the stabilizing effect of diversity strengthens over time; ( III) diversity–stability and diversity–functioning relationships are stronger under long-term than short-term conditions; and (HIV) temporal stability is driven more by resistance than by recovery.
We analyze 24 years of annual microbial biomass data along a plant species richness gradient (1–60 species) from the Jena Experiment, a grassland experiment in central Germany. To capture non-linear temporal dynamics, we apply a non-centered hierarchical model combined with a Gaussian process framework.
Preliminary results indicate that positive effects of plant species richness on microbial biomass increase over time. Ongoing analyses will quantify temporal stability, resistance, and recovery, and explicitly test hypotheses H II–H IV, including contrasts between long-term and experimentally reset communities. By September, we will provide robust estimates of diversity–stability relationships and assess the relative importance of resistance versus recovery dynamics.
Overall, this work advances a mechanistic understanding of how biodiversity regulates both the magnitude and stability of ecosystem functioning across long timescales.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| FOR TALKS: Poster Presentation Option | Yes, I’m willing to present as a poster. |