Contributions of understory and/or overstory vegetations to soil microbial PLFA and nematode diversities in Eucalyptus monocultures.

ABSTRACT: Ecological interactions between aboveground and belowground biodiversity have received many attentions in the recent decades. Although soil biodiversity declined with the decrease of plant diversity, many previous studies found plant species identities were more important than plant diversity in controlling soil biodiversity. This study focused on the responses of soil biodiversity to the altering of plant functional groups, namely overstory and understory vegetations, rather than plant diversity gradient. We conducted an experiment by removing overstory and/or understory vegetation to compare their effects on soil microbial phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) and nematode diversities in eucalyptus monocultures. Our results indicated that both overstory and understory vegetations could affect s

SUBMITTER: Zhao J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3888421 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature