Data from: Plant controls on Late Quaternary whole ecosystem structure and function

Plants and animals influence biomass production and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems; however their relative importance remains unclear. We assessed the extent to which mega-herbivore species controlled plant community composition and nutrient cycling, relative to other factors during and after the Late Quaternary extinction event in Britain and Ireland, when two-thirds of the region’s mega-herbivore species went extinct. Warmer temperatures, plant-soil and plant-plant interactions, and reduced burning contributed to the expansion of woody plants and declining nitrogen availability in our five study ecosystems. Shrub biomass in particular was consistently one of the strongest predictors of ecosystem change, equaling or exceeding the effects of other biotic and abiotic factors. In contrast, there was relatively little evidence for mega-herbivore control on plant community composition and nitrogen availability. The ability of plants to determine the fate of terrestrial ecosystems during periods of global environmental change may therefore be greater than previously thought.动植物可影响陆地生态系统（terrestrial ecosystems）的生物量生产与养分循环，但其相对重要性迄今仍未明确。我们针对英国与爱尔兰地区晚第四纪灭绝事件（Late Quaternary extinction event）发生期间及之后的情况，评估了相较于其他影响因素，巨型食草动物（mega-herbivore）物种对植物群落组成与养分循环的调控程度——该灭绝事件导致该地区三分之二的巨型食草动物物种灭绝。在我们研究的5个生态系统中，气温升高、植物-土壤与植物-植物间的相互作用，加之燃烧活动减少，共同推动了木本植物的扩张与氮素有效性的降低。其中灌木生物量始终是生态系统变化最显著的预测因子之一，其效应强度等同于甚至超过了其他生物与非生物因素。与之形成鲜明对比的是，几乎没有证据表明巨型食草动物对植物群落组成与氮素有效性存在调控作用。由此可见，在全球环境变化时期，植物调控陆地生态系统命运的能力或许远超此前的认知。