Marina Semtšenko

Eco-evolutionary dynamics in plant-soil interactions during land use transition: consequences for soil functioning and resilience to drought

European grasslands provide critical ecosystem services, but land use intensification on productive soils and the abandonment of infertile land deteriorate these services. Recent studies suggest that land use change causes genetic and phenotypic changes in plant populations. The mechanism behind these changes is unknown. The PlantSoilAdapt project will test the hypothesis that land use intensification and abandonment lead to evolutionary changes in plant function. It will explore the consequences of adaptation for soil functioning and resilience to drought.

PlantSoilAdapt will perform laboratory tests of the mechanisms underlying eco-evolutionary dynamics in plant-soil interactions during land use change and carry out community-level experiments in three different European regions. It will contribute to the understanding of species’ abilities to adapt to environmental change and of how to ensure through management and conservation that all species can realise their full adaptive potential in the face of climate change.

Results

The project is ongoing but is already yielding interesting results. First of all, the team is seeing that plants of the same species can vary significantly in their characteristics as well as their flexibility in development. This is good news. Even after many years of neglect or intense exploitation, the grasslands seem to retain considerable potential for adaptation. However, the team is also finding that many grasslands are quite distinct and provide complementary diversity, suggesting that the greatest potential to adapt to changing conditions could be achieved by maintaining many grassland patches in the landscape.

The most striking finding so far is that plants and soil organisms seem to be locally adapted to each other, and the mutually beneficial interaction between them becomes stronger in old grasslands that have been managed by traditional methods for several centuries. The team is looking forward to finding out what is behind their observations so far.

Impact

Although the majority of the human population is tied to city life, our well-being is still fundamentally dependent on natural processes, particularly plant growth and the way plants interact with soil organisms. Grasslands can harbour the highest biodiversity in European landscapes and store huge amounts of carbon in the soil.

Plants are constantly evolving and adapting, sometimes at a surprisingly fast pace and in response to human activity. The project focuses on assessing how the way we manage and use grassland ecosystems affects the ability of plants and the associated soil organisms to cope with changing conditions, for example, the increasing frequency of drought. The project will lead to a better understanding of how to ensure that grasslands are resilient in the face of climate change. Moreover, it will contribute to the fundamental knowledge of which characteristics of plants make them adaptable and beneficial for soil health. This knowledge can also be applied to crop production.