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Dryad

Fungal disease temporal stability in an alpine meadow

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Apr 28, 2021 version files 38.91 KB
Oct 28, 2021 version files 38.91 KB

Abstract

Current unprecedented species extinction has galvanized studies to clarify how biodiversity affects diseases. However, almost all empirical studies focused on diseases at a certain time point, largely ignoring the temporal stability. Using a removal experiment that manipulates plant diversity, and a fertilization experiment in a Tibetan alpine meadow, we investigated how different plant biodiversity indices and nitrogen fertilization affect the temporal stability of community pathogen load over seven consecutive years. We found that the temporal stability of foliar fungal diseases increased with plant diversity indices, among which phylogenetic diversity was the best predictor. The analyses based on Taylor’s law indicated that host plant species richness changed the scaling between logarithmic mean and variance. We also found positive relationships between phylogenetic diversity and the temporal stability of community pathogen load at species richness levels of 2 and 4. However, nitrogen fertilization weakened the positive effect of plant (phylogenetic) diversity on the temporal stability of pathogen load by increasing both the mean and standard deviation of pathogen load. We concluded that although host diversity regulated the temporal stability of pathogen load, suppressing disease fluctuation over time by increasing host diversity may be challenging in the context of the Anthropocene.