@article {6106,
	title = {Electrolytes on the prairie: How urine-like additions of Na and K shape the dynamics of a grassland food web},
	journal = {Ecology},
	volume = {104},
	year = {2023},
	pages = {e3856},
	abstract = {<p>The electrolytes Na and K both function to maintain water balance and membrane potential. However, these elements work differently in plants\&mdash;where K is the primary electrolyte\&mdash;than in animals\&mdash;where ATPases require a balanced supply of Na and K. Here we use monthly factorial additions of Na and K to simulate bovine urine inputs and explore how these electrolytes ramify through a prairie food web. Against a seasonal trend of increasing grass biomass and decreasing water and elemental tissue concentrations, +K and +Na plots boosted water content and, when added together, plant biomass. Compared to control plots, +Na and +K plots increased element concentrations in aboveground plant tissue early in summer and decreased them in September. Simultaneously, invertebrate abundance on Na and K additions were sequentially higher and lower than control plots from June-September and were most suppressed when grass was most nutrient rich. K was the more effective plant electrolyte, but Na frequently promoted similar changes in grass ionomes. The soluble/leachable ions of Na and K showed significant ability to shape plant growth, water content, and the 15-element ionome, with consequences for higher trophic levels. Grasslands with high inputs of Na and K\&mdash;via large mammal grazers or coastal aerosol deposition\&mdash;likely enhance the ability of plants to adjust their aboveground ionomes, with dramatic consequences for the distribution of invertebrate consumers.</p>},
	keywords = {LTER-KNZ},
	doi = {10.1002/ecy.3856},
	url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.3856},
	author = {Kaspari, Michael and Welti, E.A.R.}
}
