Moderate plant-soil feedbacks have small effects on the biodiversity-productivity relationship: A field experiment.

ABSTRACT: Plant-soil feedback (PSF) has gained attention as a mechanism promoting plant growth and coexistence. However, most PSF research has measured monoculture growth in greenhouse conditions. Translating PSFs into effects on plant growth in field communities remains an important frontier for PSF research. Using a 4-year, factorial field experiment in Jena, Germany, we measured the growth of nine grassland species on soils conditioned by each of the target species (i.e., 72 PSFs). Plant community models were parameterized with or without these PSF effects, and model predictions were compared to plant biomass production in diversity-productivity experiments. Plants created soils that changed subsequent plant biomass by 40%. However, because they were both positive and negative, the average PSF ef

SUBMITTER: Grenzer J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8427583 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature