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    Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Radujković, D., Verbruggen, E., Seabloom, E.W., Bahn, M., Biederman, L.A., Borer, E.T., et al. (2021) Soil properties as key predictors of global grassland production: Have we overlooked micronutrients? Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/ele.13894 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.13894 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.

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Soil properties as key predictors of global grassland production: Have we overlooked micronutrients?

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Letter › peer-review

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  • D. Radujković
  • E. Verbruggen
  • E.W. Seabloom
  • M. Bahn
  • L.A. Biederman
  • E.T. Borer
  • E.H. Boughton
  • J.A. Catford
  • M. Campioli
  • I. Donohue
  • A. Ebeling
  • A. Eskelinen
  • P.A. Fay
  • A. Hansart
  • J.M.H. Knops
  • A.S. MacDougall
  • T. Ohlert
  • H. Olde Venterink
  • X. Raynaud
  • A.C. Risch
  • C. Roscher
  • M. Schütz
  • M.L. Silveira
  • K. Van Sundert
  • R. Virtanen
  • G.M. Wardle
  • P.D. Wragg
  • S. Vicca
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>31/12/2021
<mark>Journal</mark>Ecology Letters
Issue number12
Volume24
Number of pages13
Pages (from-to)2713-2725
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date6/10/21
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Fertilisation experiments have demonstrated that nutrient availability is a key determinant of biomass production and carbon sequestration in grasslands. However, the influence of nutrients in explaining spatial variation in grassland biomass production has rarely been assessed. Using a global dataset comprising 72 sites on six continents, we investigated which of 16 soil factors that shape nutrient availability associate most strongly with variation in grassland aboveground biomass. Climate and N deposition were also considered. Based on theory-driven structural equation modelling, we found that soil micronutrients (particularly Zn and Fe) were important predictors of biomass and, together with soil physicochemical properties and C:N, they explained more unique variation (32%) than climate and N deposition (24%). However, the association between micronutrients and biomass was absent in grasslands limited by NP. These results highlight soil properties as key predictors of global grassland biomass production and point to serial co-limitation by NP and micronutrients.

Bibliographic note

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Radujković, D., Verbruggen, E., Seabloom, E.W., Bahn, M., Biederman, L.A., Borer, E.T., et al. (2021) Soil properties as key predictors of global grassland production: Have we overlooked micronutrients? Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/ele.13894 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.13894 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.