@article{08ab846c82b74aca818e912af6869fb7,
title = "Genetically based trait in a dominant tree affects ecosystem processes",
abstract = "Fundamental links between genes and ecosystem processes have remained elusive, although they have the potential to place ecosystem sciences within a genetic and evolutionary framework. Utilizing common gardens with cottonwood trees of known genotype, we found that the concentration of condensed tannins is genetically based and is the best predictor of ecosystem-level processes. Condensed tannin inputs from foliage explained 55-65% of the variation in soil net nitrogen (N) mineralization under both field and laboratory conditions. Alternative associations with litter lignin, soil moisture or soil temperature were relatively poor predictors of litter decomposition and net N mineralization. In contrast to the paradigm that the effects of genes are too diffuse to be important at the ecosystem-level, here we show that plant genes had strong, immediate effects on ecosystem function via a tight coupling of plant polyphenols to rates of nitrogen cycling.",
keywords = "Condensed tannins, Ecosystem ecology, Extended phenotype, Genetic diversity, Leaf litter decomposition, Nitrogen mineralization, Plant hybridization, Populus",
author = "Schweitzer, {Jennifer A.} and Bailey, {Joseph K.} and Rehill, {Brian J.} and Martinsen, {Gregory D.} and Hart, {Stephen C.} and Lindroth, {Richard L.} and Paul Keim and Whitham, {Thomas G.}",
note = "Funding Information: Roland Wohlgemuth studied chemistry and biology at the University of Basel in Switzerland and obtained his Diploma in Chemistry and his Doctoral degree in Biophysical Chemistry at the Biocenter of the same university in 1979 working with Prof. Dr. Joachim Seelig on the synthesis of stable-isotope labeled phospholipids, involving both chemical and biocatalytic enantioselective methods and their use for the NMR analysis of the structure and function of biological cell membranes. After his postdoctoral work (1979–1980) with Prof. Joachim Seelig, he started in 1980 a new research project on artificial photosynthesis with Prof. Melvin Calvin at UC Berkeley with a Swiss National Science Foundation Award followed by a 2-year employment by the US Department of Energy. From 1983 on Roland Wohlgemuth built up biochemistry/biotechnology at Fluka, which in 1989 became part of the Sigma-Aldrich Corporation. His main synthetic interests are at the biology–chemistry–engineering interface developing novel biocatalytic methods for metabolite synthesis.",
year = "2004",
month = feb,
doi = "10.1111/j.1461-0248.2003.00562.x",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "7",
pages = "127--134",
journal = "Ecology Letters",
issn = "1461-023X",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd",
number = "2",
}