Abstract
In order for diverse species to coexist in ecological communities, they must vary in ways that reduce competition. Often, this is done by some form of spatial niche separation where small differences in environment allow for coexistence among species. However, temporal separation of resources could also be a factor in driving community diversity. Here, we ask whether inter-annual variation in growing season precipitation could provide sufficient variation in water availability to allow plant species with different intrinsic metabolism to co-occur. We hypothesized that species would differentially respond to soil water availability, and that species with a metabolic strategy to conserve water at the expense of carbon gain would grow better in dry conditions relative to species with a metabolic strategy to gain carbon at the expense of foliar water loss. We measured above-ground biomass and leaf-level metabolism using carbon and oxygen stable isotope ratios for seven Asteraceae species across five experimental water treatments. Species differentially responded to variation in growing season water availability and, importantly, how they responded could be explained by differences in metabolism. Water-conservative species grew best in the dry treatments and had lower growth in wet treatments. Carbon-acquisitive species displayed the opposite pattern, with maximal growth in wet treatments and steep declines in dry treatments. Metabolic differences among co-occurring species may help explain temporal variation in growth, and could provide an underlying physiological mechanism for long-term dynamics that promote biodiversity.
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Acknowledgements
This manuscript is to be published as part of a Special Issue honoring Russ Monson. Author Jed P. Sparks particularly appreciates Russ' mentorship and friendship over the past 25 years. We are grateful to Jonathan Howell, Gary Oltz, Kimberlee Sparks, and Jonathan Pollak for logistical help, and to Francoise Vermeylen for statistical support. Thanks to Anna Daytz, Kelsey Jensen, Brynne Merkeley, and Caitlin Watt for help in the field and in the lab. A special thanks to our friends and colleagues who assisted in the construction of the precipitation-exclusion shelters: Kelsey Jensen, Benjamin Johnson, Elizabeth Lombardi, Michael Roddy, Gregor Sigmund, Fiona Soper, and Corey Wurtenberg.
Funding
This study was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University.
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EMG and JPS conceived of the research idea; EMG, SKP and JPS designed the experiment; EMG and SKP collected the data; EMG analyzed the data; EMG and JPS wrote the manuscript.
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Communicated by Amy Marie Trowbridge.
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Goud, E.M., Prehmus, S.K. & Sparks, J.P. Is variation in inter-annual precipitation a mechanism for maintaining plant metabolic diversity?. Oecologia 197, 1039–1047 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-05046-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-05046-y