Belowground niche partitioning is maintained under extreme drought
Data files
Sep 26, 2023 version files 85.65 KB
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Discrimination_MixSIAR.csv
86 B
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Isotopes_gradient_all.csv
7.05 KB
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Plants_isotopes.csv
10.23 KB
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Proportion_uptake_depth.csv
2.97 KB
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README.md
3.04 KB
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Species_names.csv
312 B
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weides_et_al_2023.R
60.70 KB
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Weight.csv
1.26 KB
Abstract
Belowground niche partitioning presents a key mechanism maintaining species coexistence and diversity. Its importance is currently reinforced under climate-change-altering soil hydrological conditions. However, experimental tests examining the magnitude of its change under climate change are scarce. We combined measurements of oxygen stable isotopes to infer plant water-uptake depths and extreme drought manipulation in grasslands. Belowground niche partitioning was evidenced by different water-uptake depths of co-occurring species under ambient and extreme drought conditions despite an increased overlap among species due to a shift to shallower soil layers under drought. A co-occurrence of contrasting strategies related to change of species water-uptake depths’ distribution was likely key for species to maintain some extent of belowground niche partitioning and could contribute to stabilizing coexistence under drought. Our results suggest that belowground niche partitioning could mitigate negative effects on diversity imposed by extreme drought under future climate.
README: Belowground niche partitioning is maintained under extreme drought
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f7m0cfz33
R script and data used to infer plant water-uptake depths under ambient conditions and after extreme drought manipulation in a semi-natural temperate mesic grassland in the Swabian Jura, Southern Germany. The contents of this folder correspond to the article:
Weides, S.E., Hájek, T., Liancourt, P., Herberich, M.M., Kramp, R.E., Tomiolo, S., Pacheco-Riaño, L.C., Tielbörger, K., Májeková, M. (2023) Belowground niche partitioning is maintained under extreme drought. Ecology
Comments and requests should be addressed to Sophie Weides (sophie.weides@gmail.com) or Maria Májeková (maria.majekova@gmail.com).
Author(s)
Sophie E. Weides1,2,*, Tomáš Hájek3,4, Pierre Liancourt1,3,5, Maximiliane M. Herberich6, Rosa E. Kramp1, Sara Tomiolo1, L. Camila Pacheco-Riaño7, Katja Tielbörger1, Maria Májeková1
1 Plant Ecology Group, Institute of Evolution and Ecology, University of Tübingen, Germany
2 Ecology Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Switzerland
3 Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
4 Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
5 Botany Department, State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Germany
6 Institute of Botany, BOKU Vienna, Austria
7 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, Norway
Description of the data and file structure
File list
weides_et_al_2023.R
Isotopes_gradient_all.csv
Plants_isotopes.csv
Proportion_uptake_depth.csv
Species_names.csv
Discrimination_MixSIAR.csv
Weight.csv
File descriptions
weides_et_al_2023.R is the only script that needs to be opened. It contains the linear model, the Bayesian Mixing model and the plots and will create the needed folders when its run.
Isotopes_gradient_all.csv is the file containing the soil data, meaning the site, plot, subplot (quadrat), the soil depth, the treatment and the oxygen stable isotopes.
Plants_isotopes.csv is the file containing the plant data, meaning the site, species, plot, subplot (quadrat), the treatment and the oxygen stable isotopes.
Proportion_uptake_depth.csv is a file generated by hand out of the outputs of the Bayesian mixing model that is used uniquely for plotting the results.
Species_names.csv contains a complete species list with full names explaining the abbreviations used in the dataset and code.
Discrimination_MixSIAR.csv is needed for the Bayesian Mixing Model.
Weight.csv contains the belowground biomass data, meaning site, plot, subplot (quadrant), treatment and the weight.
Note: All of the files (except Species_names.csv) must be within your working directory for the analysis to work.