Open Access

ARTICLE

Effects of Soil Nutrient Heterogeneity and Earthworms on Aboveground Biomass of Experimental Plant Communities

by Simei Yao^1,2, Yu Jin^2,3, Limin Zhang², Ningfei Lei^1,*, Wei Xue^2,*, Jinsong Chen³, Qian Zhang², Feihai Yu^1,2

1 College of the Environment, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, China
2 Institute of Wetland Ecology & Clone Ecology, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou, 318000, China
3 College of Life Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610101, China

* Corresponding Authors: Ningfei Lei. Email: ; Wei Xue. Email:

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2021, 90(4), 1259-1271. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2021.014968

Received 12 November 2020; Accepted 12 January 2021; Issue published 27 April 2021

Abstract

Soil nutrients are commonly heterogeneously distributed and earthworms are one of the most common soil organisms. While effects of both soil nutrient heterogeneity and earthworms have been well studied, their interactive effect on plant community productivity has rarely been tested. In a greenhouse experiment, we constructed experimental plant communities by sowing seed mixtures of four grasses, two legumes and two forbs in either a heterogeneous soil consisting of low and high nutrient soil patches or a homogeneous soil where the low and high nutrient soil patches were evenly mixed. The earthworm Eisenia fetida was either added to these soils or not. Aboveground biomass of the whole communities, grasses and legumes did not differ between the homogeneous and heterogeneous soils or between the soils with and without earthworms. However, soil nutrient heterogeneity reduced aboveground biomass of forbs, and such an effect did not interact with earthworms. In response to soil heterogeneity and earthworms, biomass ratio of the three functional groups showed similar patterns as that of their biomass. At the patch level, aboveground biomass of the whole community, grasses and legumes were greater in the high than in the low nutrient soil patches within the heterogeneous soil. A similar pattern was found for the forbs, but this was only true in the absence of earthworms. Our results suggest that soil nutrient heterogeneity and earthworms may not influence aboveground biomass of plant communities, despite the fact that they may modify the growth of certain plant functional groups within the community.

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