PLABIOF

Linking living plant traits to soil biogeochemical functions in ecosystem patches under different land use regimes using an isotope-based assessment

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Nitrogen cycling is an important aspect of ecosystem functioning and global change. Plants affect soil N cycling through a series of direct and indirect mechanisms. It is therefore essential to understand how human-induced shifts in plant communities modify soil N cycling. One emerging approach to assess these links is by expressing vegetation data based on the functional characteristics (‘traits’) of the plants that make up an ecosystem. In this study, four different land use patches under different historic and present land management within a regional landscape will be selected, and characterized according to their plant functional diversity. Living plant, but not soil effects, on gross N cycling and microbial community structure will be determined using root-permeable cores filled with a common soil, and installed in the land use patches 9-15 months prior to isotope-based N cycling measurements. Statistical RLQ analysis will be used to investigate links between plant traits and biogeochemical ecosystem functioning. The innovative nature of this project lies in the combination of state-of-the-art methods and concepts in plant ecology and biogeochemistry that complement each other in a multi- and interdisciplinary framework. This is achieved by integrating expertise of two research institutions that share a common research interest in global change ecology, but each have a very different conceptual and methodological background in the complementary scientific subdisciplines of plant ecology (outgoing host) and biogeochemistry (return host). The proposal contains a 2-year training period to learn and apply the use of plant trait approaches at one of the worldwide leading institutes in trait-based ecology (Multidisciplinary Institute of Plant Biology, Córdoba, Argentina). The acquired skills and knowledge will be disseminated through several mentoring and tutoring mechanisms at the return host institution (Laboratory of Applied Physical Sciences, Ghent, Belgium).'

Introduzione (Teaser)

An EU project is investigating how plants in different ecosystems affect nitrogen cycling in the soil of that ecosystem.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Nitrogen cycling in the soil drives global climate effects through its impact on biomass production, climate stability and other major ecosystem services. Enhanced knowledge of how plants can influence the soil nitrogen cycle is vital to better understand this important phenomenon.

The EU-funded PLABIOF (Linking living plant traits to soil biogeochemical functions in ecosystem patches under different land use regimes using an isotope-based assessment) project aims to achieve this by studying how different ecosystems affect nitrogen cycling and soil microorganisms.

Researchers selected for study 192 patches of land under different past and present land management approaches. They first characterised each patch based on the diversity of plants found there.

Once this was complete, PLABIOF installed more than 800 soil cores into these patches. The cores contained specially labelled nitrogen atoms that allow researchers to track the movement of nitrogen in the ecosystem.

Thirteen months later, researchers returned to experimental sites and measured the levels of labelled nitrogen in microorganisms and plants. At the same time, they collected data about plant growth and other ecosystem traits.

PLABIOF will now concentrate on processing this data to better understand the relationship between ecosystem traits and soil nitrogen cycling within that ecosystem. This knowledge will help shape decisions on land use worldwide.