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Addition of multiple limiting resources reduces grassland diversity

Nature volume 537, pages 93–96 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Niche dimensionality provides a general theoretical explanation for biodiversity—more niches, defined by more limiting factors, allow for more ways that species can coexist1. Because plant species compete for the same set of limiting resources, theory predicts that addition of a limiting resource eliminates potential trade-offs, reducing the number of species that can coexist2. Multiple nutrient limitation of plant production is common and therefore fertilization may reduce diversity by reducing the number or dimensionality of belowground limiting factors. At the same time, nutrient addition, by increasing biomass, should ultimately shift competition from belowground nutrients towards a one-dimensional competitive trade-off for light3. Here we show that plant species diversity decreased when a greater number of limiting nutrients were added across 45 grassland sites from a multi-continent experimental network4. The number of added nutrients predicted diversity loss, even after controlling for effects of plant biomass, and even where biomass production was not nutrient-limited. We found that elevated resource supply reduced niche dimensionality and diversity and increased both productivity5 and compositional turnover. Our results point to the importance of understanding dimensionality in ecological systems that are undergoing diversity loss in response to multiple global change factors.

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Figure 1: Biodiversity and number of resources.
Figure 2: Biomass and light.
Figure 3: Multiple resource limitation.
Figure 4: Community composition.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data, the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment for hosting Nutrient Network meetings, and each site investigator for funding their site-level operations. Network coordination and data management were supported by funds from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF-DEB-1042132) to E.T.B. and E.W.S. from the Long Term Ecological Research program (NSF-DEB-1234162) to the Cedar Creek LTER, and from the Institute on the Environment (DG-0001-13). Konza NutNet site was funded by the Konza Prairie LTER; the Saline Experimental Range NutNet site was funded by a Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies Pilot Grant. Nitrogen fertilizer was donated to the Nutrient Network by Crop Production Services, Loveland, Colorado. We thank N. Gotelli for discussions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research – UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, Leipzig, 04318, Germany

    W. Stanley Harpole

  2. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, Leipzig, 04103, Germany

    W. Stanley Harpole & Jonathan Chase

  3. Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Am Kirchtor 1, Halle (Saale), 06108, Germany

    W. Stanley Harpole & Jonathan Chase

  4. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA

    Lauren L. Sullivan, Eric M. Lind, Elizabeth T. Borer & Eric W. Seabloom

  5. School of Earth, Environment and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 4001, Queensland, Australia

    Jennifer Firn

  6. Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, 84322, Utah, USA

    Peter B. Adler

  7. USDA-ARS Grassland Soil and Water Research Lab, Temple, 76502, Texas, USA

    Philip A. Fay

  8. Department of Biology, Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, CH 3584, The Netherlands

    Yann Hautier

  9. Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, University of Oldenburg, Schleusenstrasse 1, Wilhelmshaven, D-26381, Germany

    Helmut Hillebrand

  10. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Ontario, Canada

    Andrew S. MacDougall

  11. Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, 50011, Iowa, USA

    Ryan Williams

  12. School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195, Washington, USA

    Jonathan D. Bakker

  13. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto – Scarborough, 1265 Military trail, Toronto, M1C 1A4, Ontario, Canada

    Marc W. Cadotte

  14. IFEVA/CONICET – Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambiente, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Av. San Martín 4453 (C1417DSE), Buenos, Aires, Argentina

    Enrique J. Chaneton

  15. SYSU-Alberta Joint Lab for Biodiversity Conservation, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Chengjin Chu

  16. Ecology, Behavior & Evolution Section, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, 92093, California, USA

    Elsa E. Cleland

  17. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106-9620, California, USA

    Carla D’Antonio

  18. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, 80309, Colorado, USA

    Kendi F. Davies

  19. Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, 20742, USA

    Daniel S. Gruner

  20. School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 3209, South Africa

    Nicole Hagenah & Kevin Kirkman

  21. School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 68588, Nebraska, USA

    Johannes M. H. Knops

  22. Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Kimberly J. La Pierre

  23. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 40546, Kentucky, USA

    Rebecca L. McCulley

  24. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria, 3800, Australia

    Joslin L. Moore

  25. Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, 3086, Victoria, Australia

    John W. Morgan

  26. CSIRO Land and Water, Private Bag 5, Wembley, 6913, Western Australia, Australia

    Suzanne M. Prober

  27. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Community Ecology, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland

    Anita C. Risch & Martin Schuetz

  28. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK

    Carly J. Stevens

  29. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 165 Prospect Street, New Haven, 06511, Connecticut, USA

    Peter D. Wragg

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  1. W. Stanley Harpole
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Contributions

W.S.H. analysed the data and wrote the paper with contributions and input from all authors. L.L.S., E.M.L. and J.F. contributed to data analysis. W.S.H., E.W.S. and E.T.B. developed and framed the research questions. W.S.H., E.W.S., E.T.B. and E.M.L. are Nutrient Network coordinators. All authors collected data used in this analysis. Author contribution matrix provided as Supplementary Table 2.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to W. Stanley Harpole.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Reviewer Information Nature thanks J. Levine, B. Schmid and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Table 1 The effects of nutrient addition on diversity loss and richness loss increase with time
Full size table
Extended Data Table 2 The number of added resources predicts diversity loss after controlling for other variables
Full size table
Extended Data Table 3 The number of added resources is an important predictor even after controlling for other variables, for sites that had light and litter data
Full size table
Extended Data Table 4 Diversity loss due to addition of nutrients associated with soil properities
Full size table

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Tables 1-2. (PDF 305 kb)

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Harpole, W., Sullivan, L., Lind, E. et al. Addition of multiple limiting resources reduces grassland diversity. Nature 537, 93–96 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19324

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