Nitrogen enrichment and vascular plant richness loss reduce bryophyte richness
Abstract Grasslands’ high diversity is threatened by land-use changes, such as nitrogen fertilization, leading to productive but low-richness, fast-growing plant communities. Bryophytes are a key component of grassland diversity and react strongly to land use. However, it is unclear whether land-use...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88425-2 |
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| author | Maeve Lin Ariel Bergamini Noémie A. Pichon Eric Allan Steffen Boch |
| author_facet | Maeve Lin Ariel Bergamini Noémie A. Pichon Eric Allan Steffen Boch |
| author_sort | Maeve Lin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Grasslands’ high diversity is threatened by land-use changes, such as nitrogen fertilization, leading to productive but low-richness, fast-growing plant communities. Bryophytes are a key component of grassland diversity and react strongly to land use. However, it is unclear whether land-use effects are direct or mediated by changes in vascular plants. Increases in vascular plant cover are likely to decrease bryophyte abundance through light competition. Whether changes in vascular plant composition and richness also play a role remains unclear. We sampled bryophytes in a factorial grassland experiment manipulating nitrogen fertilization, fungicide, species richness, and functional composition of vascular plants crossed with moderate disturbances by weeding. Disturbance increased bryophyte richness and modulated treatment effects. In contrast to previous studies reporting indirect negative fertilization effects via increasing vascular plant productivity and reduced light levels, nitrogen fertilization directly reduced bryophyte cover and species richness, possibly because of toxic effects. Low vascular plant richness and dominance of fast-growing species reduced bryophyte richness. This might be because of decreased structural and resource niche heterogeneity in species-poor communities. Our results highlight novel mechanisms by which land-use intensification can affect bryophytes and suggest that a loss of vascular plant richness might have cascading effects on other taxonomic groups. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c0ff7d7611294092ab0fae4d2945fc18 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
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| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-c0ff7d7611294092ab0fae4d2945fc182025-02-09T12:29:53ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-02-0115111210.1038/s41598-025-88425-2Nitrogen enrichment and vascular plant richness loss reduce bryophyte richnessMaeve Lin0Ariel Bergamini1Noémie A. Pichon2Eric Allan3Steffen Boch4Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSLSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSLSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSLInstitute of Plant Sciences, University of BernSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSLAbstract Grasslands’ high diversity is threatened by land-use changes, such as nitrogen fertilization, leading to productive but low-richness, fast-growing plant communities. Bryophytes are a key component of grassland diversity and react strongly to land use. However, it is unclear whether land-use effects are direct or mediated by changes in vascular plants. Increases in vascular plant cover are likely to decrease bryophyte abundance through light competition. Whether changes in vascular plant composition and richness also play a role remains unclear. We sampled bryophytes in a factorial grassland experiment manipulating nitrogen fertilization, fungicide, species richness, and functional composition of vascular plants crossed with moderate disturbances by weeding. Disturbance increased bryophyte richness and modulated treatment effects. In contrast to previous studies reporting indirect negative fertilization effects via increasing vascular plant productivity and reduced light levels, nitrogen fertilization directly reduced bryophyte cover and species richness, possibly because of toxic effects. Low vascular plant richness and dominance of fast-growing species reduced bryophyte richness. This might be because of decreased structural and resource niche heterogeneity in species-poor communities. Our results highlight novel mechanisms by which land-use intensification can affect bryophytes and suggest that a loss of vascular plant richness might have cascading effects on other taxonomic groups.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88425-2Biodiversity experimentBryophyte diversityFunctional traitsMossNitrogen enrichmentSpecies richness |
| spellingShingle | Maeve Lin Ariel Bergamini Noémie A. Pichon Eric Allan Steffen Boch Nitrogen enrichment and vascular plant richness loss reduce bryophyte richness Scientific Reports Biodiversity experiment Bryophyte diversity Functional traits Moss Nitrogen enrichment Species richness |
| title | Nitrogen enrichment and vascular plant richness loss reduce bryophyte richness |
| title_full | Nitrogen enrichment and vascular plant richness loss reduce bryophyte richness |
| title_fullStr | Nitrogen enrichment and vascular plant richness loss reduce bryophyte richness |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nitrogen enrichment and vascular plant richness loss reduce bryophyte richness |
| title_short | Nitrogen enrichment and vascular plant richness loss reduce bryophyte richness |
| title_sort | nitrogen enrichment and vascular plant richness loss reduce bryophyte richness |
| topic | Biodiversity experiment Bryophyte diversity Functional traits Moss Nitrogen enrichment Species richness |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88425-2 |
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