Abstract
Background and aims
We lack studies evaluating how the identity of plant, lichen and moss species relates to microbial abundance and soil functioning on Antarctica. If species identity is associated with soil functioning, distributional changes of key species, linked to climate change, could significantly affect Antarctic soil functioning.
Methods
We evaluated how the identity of six Antarctic plant, lichen and moss species relate to a range of soil attributes (C, N and P cycling), microbial abundance and structure in Livingston Island, Maritime Antarctica. We used an effect size metric to predict the association between species (vs. bare soil) and the measured soil attributes.
Results
We observed species-specific effects of the plant and biocrust species on soil attributes and microbial abundance. Phenols, phosphatase and β-D-cellobiosidase activities were the most important attributes characterizing the observed patterns. We found that the evaluated species positively correlated with soil nutrient availability and microbial abundance vs. bare soil.
Conclusions
We provide evidence, from a comparative study, that plant and biocrust identity is associated with different levels of soil functioning and microbial abundance in Maritime Antarctica. Our results suggest that changes in the spatial distribution of these species linked to climate change could potentially entail changes in the functioning of Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the reviewers and editor of this article for their constructive and precise comments. We also thank Victoria Ochoa, Beatriz Gozalo and Chanda Trivedi for their kind assistance through laboratory work and Jasmine Grinyer for revising the English of this manuscript. We thank José Manuel Blanquer, the B.I.O. Hesperides crew and the Spanish Antarctic Base JCI team for their support during the field campaign. This research was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CTM2015-64728-C2-1-R, CTM2012-38222-CO2-01 and CGL2013-44661-R) and the European Research Council (BIODESERT project, ERC Grant agreement n° 647038). ABG was supported by FPI (BES-2013-062945) and short stay (EEBB-I-15-09187) grants from Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. MDB is supported from the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions of the Horizon 2020 Framework Program H2020-MSCA-IF-2016 under REA grant agreement n° 702057 and from the BES (MUSGONET) grant agreement n° LRA17\1193. BKS work is supported by the Australian Research Council (DP170104634).
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Figure S1
Fertility effect of the species studied (vs. bare ground areas), as measured with the relative interaction index (RII), on soil variables that did not show statistical differences between species (n = 10, except Cladonia sp. with n = 6). CL: Cladonia sp.; DA: Deschampsia antarctica; LP: Leptogium puberulum; SA: Stereocaulon alpinum; SG: Sphaerophorus globosus; SU: Sanionia uncinata. (PNG 120 kb)
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Benavent-González, A., Delgado-Baquerizo, M., Fernández-Brun, L. et al. Identity of plant, lichen and moss species connects with microbial abundance and soil functioning in maritime Antarctica. Plant Soil 429, 35–52 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3721-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3721-7