Lost in diversity: the interactions between soil-borne fungi, biodiversity and plant productivity.

ABSTRACT: There is consensus that plant species richness enhances plant productivity within natural grasslands, but the underlying drivers remain debated. Recently, differential accumulation of soil-borne fungal pathogens across the plant diversity gradient has been proposed as a cause of this pattern. However, the below-ground environment has generally been treated as a 'black box' in biodiversity experiments, leaving these fungi unidentified. Using next generation sequencing and pathogenicity assays, we analysed the community composition of root-associated fungi from a biodiversity experiment to examine if evidence exists for host specificity and negative density dependence in the interplay between soil-borne fungi, plant diversity and productivity. Plant species were colonised by distinct (pathog

SUBMITTER: Mommer L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5887887 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature