Multiple Community Properties Drive Ecosystem Resistance and Resilience to Extreme Climate Events Across Mesic Grasslands Using nearly 40 years of data from naturally-assembled plant communities, we found that while richness is important for resistance to extreme dry events, dominance is important for resistance to extr...

aaand here is the correct link: doi.org/10.1111/ele....

Led by Ashley Darst and Joshua Ajowele, together with @nameer.bsky.social @maoweiliang.bsky.social iliang.bsky.social @smriti-pehim-limbu.bsky.social @rosalieterry.bsky.social and many more who are not on 🦋. We had great support by @nickhaddad.bsky.social, @drkimkomatsu.bsky.social and Eric Seabloom

Further, nutrient addition alters resistance & resilience indirectly by reducing species richness and increasing dominance.
In summary: A combination of richness, dominance and evenness are needed for stability during extreme climates, but all of them together cannot be maximized simultaneously.

With this unique dataset, we found that
- species richness is important for resistance to extreme dry events
- the abundance of dominant species is important for resistance to extreme wet events
- evenness is important for resilience under unfertilized conditions

We assembled over 40 years of data from 3 grassland sites in the Midwest to identify the community characteristics that drive resistance and resilience in the face of extreme dry and wet climatic events.

We came up with research questions, identified relevant analytical approaches and datasets, organized and analyzed for a long time without a leader. The project moved forward by many small and big contributions by every single member. No big egos, no elbows, just fun and curiosity!

This paper is especially dear to me, because of the unique journey of how it came to be. It shows what happens when you throw curious minds, food, a bunch of data and some scientific input in a room together for a couple of days and let the magic happen. (organized by @nameer.bsky.social 💚)

📃🚨🌎 Now published: "Multiple Community Properties Drive Ecosystem Resistance and Resilience to Extreme Climate Events Across Mesic Grasslands". This is the result of a synthesis project by a bunch of early career researchers on data from @kbslter.bsky.social, Cedar Creek LTER and Konza Prairie LTER

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Together these results show that bottom-up and top-down factors interact with necromass chemistry to govern necromass decay. They highlight the critical role of plants in coupling aboveground fungal communities with belowground decomposer communities & their collective influence on soil C cycling.

The decomposition of low quality necromass was primarily driven by treatment-induced shifts in abiotic soil conditions (moisture, pH), whereas high quality necromass decomposition was governed by biotic drivers (mould & yeast relative abundance, C3 grass abundance).

This is figure 5 from the published manuscript. It shows the log response ratios (LRR, response to fungicide and fertilizer treatment) of bacterial (panel A) and fungal (panel B) sequence abundance at 6 and 32 days after litter bag placement in the field. Fungal abundance on high quality litter increased with fertilizer at 6 days after placement, and bacterial abundance on high quality litter increased with fungicide and fungicide+fertilizer treatment at 6 days after placement.

Fertilization increased fungal abundance, while fungicide promoted bacterial abundance on high-quality necromass.

Figure 3 from the published manuscritp. It shows the proportion of high and low quality necromass remaining in litterbags at different time points up to 60 days after placement of litterbags in the field (panel a). This is shown for different treatments (with and without fungicide, with and without fertilizer). In panel B and C, the decomposition rates k and the slow pool size A response ratio to treatments are shown by necromass type (high and low quality). The results in this figure described in the results section of the manuscript: "Treatment effects on fungal necromass decomposition were most pronounced during the early phase of decomposition (Fig. 3A). Fertilization accelerated the decay of the fast pool but only in control plots, in which necromass k increased from 0.10 ± 0.01 day⁻1 to 0.13 ± 0.01 day⁻1. On average, the decay rate of Cladosporium was nearly double that of Hyaloscypha and showed greater responsiveness to treatments overall (Fig. 3B, LRR > 0). Specifically, Cladosporium decay was accelerated by fertilizer, fungicide, and their combination. However, when fungicide and fertilizer were applied together, decay rates were no higher than under either treatment alone (Fig. 3B). The size of the slow pool (A), which represents the proportion of necromass remaining after the initial fast pool decays, exhibited a complex three-way interaction between substrate quality, fungicide, and fertilization. In unfertilized plots, fungicide application significantly increased the proportion of Cladosporium necromass that persisted in the slow phase from 0.18 ± 0.01 to 0.25 ± 0.02 (Fig. 3C), making its long-term persistence comparable to that of the low quality Hyaloscypha necromass (0.25 ± 0.04; averaged across all treatments). In fertilized plots, fungicide failed to increase the slow pool size, which was similar between fungicide treated (0.20 ± 0.02) and control plots (0.20 ± 0.01)."

As for plant litter, fertilization generally accelerated early-stage necromass decomposition, but this was surprisingly not enhanced by fungicide application.

A lush grassland with yellow flowers scattered throughout. In the grassland there are poles and fences that separate experimental plots from each other. In the background there are oak trees and a blue sky.

For this, she decomposed fungal necromass of varying quality in a consumer removal experiment at Cedar Creek, where we manipulated the presence of foliar fungal pathogens and nutrient availability.

Here, Katie investigated the role of fungi for carbon cycling, as input to soils in the form of fungal necromass, as saprotrophs living on soil organic carbon and as plant pathogens controlling the availability of plant derived soil carbon and how their role varied under increased nutrient supply

🧪🌍 🚨📄published *Interactive effects of plant-mediated controls and substrate quality on fungal necromass decay* 🍄 led by the amazing Katie Beidler, with many excellent scientist from University of Minnesota
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

⬇️Short summary in thread below🧵⬇️

Taking a fun way to work to @slfdavos.bsky.social today with @serainacappelli.bsky.social 😀❄️⛄️

📣📣📣 This 👇

The new Wiley journal review system is an absolute nightmare. Editorial assistants have been replaced by a clunky, AI-enabled website that makes it harder to find and invite reviewers. Associate editor workloads have increased. I'm not convinced the invitations to reviewers are even going through.

Seriously @globalchangebio.bsky.social & @wiley.com ?! 😡🧪🌍

- cran.r-project.org/web/packages...
- rdrr.io/github/Benja...?

The bigger, the better! But honestly, I just have no idea of American units 😅 You can download the poster here: koiosjerome.direct.quickconnect.to:5001/sharing/CxrG... and I am more than happy to chat about it anytime 😃😃😃

Are you at @ESA2025 today? Come see my poster (263) about small consumer impacts on plant litter impacts on decomposition!

How climate shapes soil fungal traits Many soil microbes play a vital role in ecosystems, as they help plants access nutrients and water and assist in stress tolerance such as during drought and to defend against pathogens. One such group...

Our new global study led by @smriti-pehim-limbu.bsky.social is now out in @pnas.org. TLDR: Certain spore traits were linked to climate AND species range sizes! YES we can use traits to gain insight into env adaptations for microbes.

#mycorrhizas #spores #NSFfunded
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

at FEMS Microbiology Ecology here: doi.org/10.1093/fems...

The study focuses on soil microbial communities. Benefits to the current crop are not presented in this study (see other studies from the experiment for this). Soils from plots with legume cover crops in the previous year increased AMF colonization in flax, suggesting benefits to following crops.

With Karoliina Huusko, @omsietio.bsky.social, Bernhard Schmid, Paula Thitz, Stephanie Gerin, @annaliisalaine.bsky.social, Annalea Lohila and @jheinons.bsky.social 6/6

Overall, diverse cover crops, particularly mixtures including legumes, sustained diverse and beneficial
fungal communities over winter, already after one
year of expeirment. Agricultural diversification using CCs may have positive impacts on the microbial communities. 5/6

Some highlights of many results
-vegetation and cover crop richness increased microbial biomass and microbial growth efficiency
-Cover crop richness increased AM fungal diversity while legumes suppressed fungal pathogens
-Legumes boosted next years crops association with beneficial AM fungi
4/6

For her PhD project, Rashmi characterized #TWINWINS bulk soil microbial communities across seasons, and used additional experiments to assess decomposition and legacy effects on AM colonization in a consecutive crop. 3/5