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Browsing by Author "Messier, Christian"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Contributions of a global network of tree diversity experiments to sustainable forest plantations
    (Springer, 2016) Verheyen, Kris; Vanhellemont, Margot; Auge, Harald; Baeten, Lander; Baraloto, Christopher; Barsoum, Nadia; Bilodeau-Gauthier, Simon; Bruelheide, Helge; Castagneyrol, Bastien; Godbold, Douglas; Haase, Josephine; Hector, Andy; Jactel, Hervé; Koricheva, Julia; Loreau, Michel; Mereu, Simone; Messier, Christian; Muys, Bart; Nolet, Philippe; Paquette, Alain; Parker, John; Perring, Mike; Ponette, Quentin; Potvin, Catherine; Reich, Peter B; Smith, Andy; Weih, Martin; Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael
    The area of forest plantations is increasing worldwide helping to meet timber demand and protect natural forests. However, with global change, monospecific plantations are increasingly vulnerable to abiotic and biotic disturbances. As an adaption measure we need to move to plantations that are more diverse in genotypes, species, and structure, with a design underpinned by science. TreeDivNet, a global network of tree diversity experiments, responds to this need by assessing the advantages and disadvantages of mixed species plantations. The network currently consists of 18 experiments, distributed over 36 sites and five ecoregions. With plantations 1–15 years old, TreeDivNet can already provide relevant data for forest policy and management. In this paper, we highlight some early results on the carbon sequestration and pest resistance potential of more diverse plantations. Finally, suggestions are made for new, innovative experiments in understudied regions to complement the existing network.
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    Data and code for remote spectral detection of biodiversity effects on forest biomass
    (2020-08-26) Williams, Laura J; Cavender-Bares, Jeannine; Townsend, Philip A; Couture, John J; Wang, Zhihui; Stefanski, Artur; Messier, Christian; Reich, Peter B; will3972@umn.edu; Williams, Laura J
    Quantifying how biodiversity affects ecosystem functions through time over large spatial extents is needed to meet global biodiversity goals yet is infeasible with field-based approaches alone. Imaging spectroscopy is a tool with potential to help address this challenge. In this study, we demonstrated a spectral approach to assess biodiversity effects in young forests that provides insight into its underlying drivers and could potentially be applied at large spatial scales. Using airborne imaging (NASA AVIRIS-NG) of a tree diversity experiment (IDENT-Cloquet in Cloquet, MN), spectral differences among plots enabled us to quantify net biodiversity effects on stem biomass and canopy nitrogen. In this repository, we present the spectral data and field data along with spectral model coefficients and example code for fitting and applying spectral models to calculate spectral biodiversity effects.
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    Ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity and saprotrophic fungal diversity are linked to different tree community attributes in a field‐based tree experiment
    (Wiley, 2016) Nguyen, Nhu H; Williams, Laura J; Vincent, John B; Stefanski, Artur; Cavender‐Bares, Jeannine; Messier, Christian; Paquette, Alain; Gravel, Dominique; Reich, Peter B; Kennedy, Peter G
    Exploring the link between above- and belowground biodiversity has been a major theme of recent ecological research, due in large part to the increasingly well-recognized role that soil microorganisms play in driving plant community processes. In this study, we utilized a field-based tree experiment in Minnesota, USA, to assess the effect of changes in plant species richness and phylogenetic diversity on the richness and composition of both ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungal communities. We found that ectomycorrhizal fungal species richness was significantly positively influenced by increasing plant phylogenetic diversity, while saprotrophic fungal species richness was significantly affected by plant leaf nitrogen content, specific root length and standing biomass. The increasing ectomycorrhizal fungal richness associated with increasing plant phylogenetic diversity was driven by the combined presence of ectomycorrhizal fungal specialists in plots with both gymnosperm and angiosperm hosts. Although the species composition of both the ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungal communities changed significantly in response to changes in plant species composition, the effect was much greater for ectomycorrhizal fungi. In addition, ectomycorrhizal but not saprotrophic fungal species composition was significantly influenced by both plant phylum (angiosperm, gymnosperm, both) and origin (Europe, America, both). The phylum effect was caused by differences in ectomycorrhizal fungal community composition, while the origin effect was attributable to differences in community heterogeneity. Taken together, this study emphasizes that plant-associated effects on soil fungal communities are largely guild-specific and provides a mechanistic basis for the positive link between plant phylogenetic diversity and ectomycorrhizal fungal richness.
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    Fine-root biomass from Cloquet and Auclair IDENT sites
    (2022-03-14) Schuster, Michael J.; Williams, Laura J; Stefanski, Artur; Bermudez, Raimundo; Messier, Christian; Belluau, Michaël; Paquette, Alain; Gravel, Dominique; Reich, Peter B; schuster@umn.edu; Schuster, Michael J
    Mean fine-root biomass data gathered from the IDENT experiments in Cloquet, MN and Auclair, Quebec.
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    Functional identity is the main driver of diversity effects in young tree communities
    (Wiley, 2016) Tobner, Cornelia M; Paquette, Alain; Gravel, Dominique; Reich, Peter B; Williams, Laura J; Messier, Christian
    Two main effects are proposed to explain biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships: niche complementarity and selection effects. Both can be functionally defined using the functional diversity (FD) and functional identity (FI) of the community respectively. Herein, we present results from the first tree diversity experiment that separated the effect of selection from that of complementarity by varying community composition in high-density plots along a gradient of FD, independent of species richness and testing for the effects of FD and community weighted means of traits (a proxy for FI) on stem biomass increment (a proxy for productivity). After 4 years of growth, most mixtures did not differ in productivity from the averages of their respective monocultures, but some did overyield significantly. Those positive diversity effects resulted mostly from selection effects, primarily driven by fast-growing deciduous species and associated traits. Net diversity effect did not increase with time over 4 years.
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    Light access and leaf trait variation within and among tree species across diverse mixtures within a common garden
    (2019-11-05) Williams, Laura J; Cavender-Bares, Jeannine; Reich, Peter B; Paquette, Alain; Messier, Christian; will3972@umn.edu; Williams, Laura J
    This dataset includes trait measurements for 2615 leaves of common temperate-boreal tree species alongside estimates of their light access. Trait values affect how plants function, with consequences that propagate through scales of ecological organization to affect ecosystem function. However, the pathway connecting trait expression to ecosystem function is complicated by feedbacks: trait expression may vary within species in response to community diversity, and trait expression also determines a community’s functional diversity. In this study, we quantify the extent to which light access – which past studies suggest affects trait expression and differs as a result of interactions among plants – differs consistently with community diversity and explains intraspecific trait variation in trees. In a common garden, trees of five angiosperm and seven gymnosperm species were planted to form 37 communities ranging widely in species and functional diversity whereby confounding environmental variation was minimized. We sampled leaves of each species to characterize intraspecific variation within crowns, among trees within communities, and among communities in three traits – leaf size, specific leaf area and nitrogen concentration – and estimated each leaf’s access to light.
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    Partitioning the effect of composition and diversity of tree communities on leaf litter decomposition and soil respiration
    (Wiley, 2016) Jewell, Mark Davidson; Shipley, Bill; Low-Décarie, Etienne; Tobner, Cornelia M; Paquette, Alain; Messier, Christian; Reich, Peter B
    The decomposition of plant material is an important ecosystem process influencing both carbon cycling and soil nutrient availability. Quantifying how plant diversity affects decomposition is thus crucial for predicting the effect of the global decline in plant diversity on ecosystem functioning. Plant diversity could affect the decomposition process both directly through the diversity of the litter, and/or indirectly through the diversity of the host plant community and its affect on the decomposition environment. Using a biodiversity experiment with trees in which both functional and taxonomic diversity were explicitly manipulated independently, we tested the effects of the functional diversity and identity of the living trees separately and in combination with the functional diversity and identity of the decomposing litter on rates of litter decomposition and soil respiration. Plant traits, predominantly leaf chemical and physical traits, were correlated with both litter decomposition and soil respiration rates. Surface litter decomposition, quantified by mass loss in litterbags, was best explained by abundance-weighted mean trait values of tree species from which the litter was assembled (functional identity). In contrast, soil respiration, which includes decomposition of dissolved organic carbon and root respiration, was best explained by the variance in trait values of the host trees (functional diversity). This research provides insight into the effect of loss of tree diversity in forests on soil processes. Such understanding is essential to predicting changes in the global carbon budget brought on by biodiversity loss.
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    A traits-based test of the home-field advantage in mixed-species tree litter decomposition
    (Oxford University Press, 2015) Jewell, Mark Davidson; Shipley, Bill; Paquette, Alain; Messier, Christian; Reich, Peter B
    Background and Aims Litter often decomposes faster in its environment of origin (at ‘home’) than in a foreign environment (‘away’), which has become known as the home-field advantage (HFA). However, many studies have highlighted the conditional nature of the HFA, suggesting that current understanding of this phenomenon is not yet sufficient to generalize across systems. Methods The HFA hypothesis was tested for mono-specific and mixed-species litter using a tree-based experiment that manipulated the functional identity and diversity of the host tree community. Litter types of varying quality were transplanted between several host tree communities and decomposition rates were measured using litterbags. Since the decomposer community should respond to traits of the litter input and not their taxonomic identity, a traits-based index of litter–tree similarity was developed. Key Results Mono-specific litter exhibited HFA, but when the same litter was decomposed in mixture, this trend was not observed. Mixed-species litter decomposed on average no faster or slower than monoculture litter and exhibited both positive and negative species interactions. These non-additive interactions of decomposition rates in mixture were influenced by the degree of similarity between litter and tree traits. Both synergistic and antagonistic interactions decreased in magnitude with increasing litter–tree similarity such that mixture rates were predictable from monocultures. Conclusions The HFA occurred more strongly for mono-specific litter than for the litter types mixed together because interactions between species may have masked this effect. However, when expressed as a function of trait similarity between litters and tree communities, the HFA was not detected.