Plant-soil feedbacks help explain biodiversity-productivity relationships.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Forero LE
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8233354 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description: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 effect was 14% less growth on "home" than on "away" soils. Nine-species plant communities produced 29 to 37% more biomass for polycultures than for monocultures due primarily to selection effects. With or without PSF, plant community models predicted 28%-29% more biomass for polycultures than for monocultures, again due primarily to selection effects. Synthesis: Despite causing 40% changes in plant biomass, PSFs had little effect on model predictions of plant community biomass across a range of species richness. While somewhat surprising, a lack of a PSF effect was appropriate in this site because species richness effects in this study were caused by selection effects and not complementarity effects (PSFs are a complementarity mechanism). Our plant community models helped us describe several reasons that even large PSF may not affect plant productivity. Notably, we found that dominant species demonstrated small PSF, suggesting there may be selective pressure for plants to create neutral PSF. Broadly, testing PSFs in plant communities in field conditions provided a more realistic understanding of how PSFs affect plant growth in communities in the context of other species traits.
| S-EPMC8427583 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The relationship between ecological variation and microbial genetic composition is critical to understanding microbial influence on community and ecosystem function. In glasshouse trials using nine native legume species and 40 rhizobial strains, we find that bacterial rRNA phylotype accounts for 68% of amoung isolate variability in symbiotic effectiveness and 79% of host specificity in growth response. We also find that rhizobial phylotype diversity and composition of soils collected from a geographical breadth of sites explains the growth responses of two acacia species. Positive soil microbial feedback between the two acacia hosts was largely driven by changes in diversity of rhizobia. Greater rhizobial diversity accumulated in association with the less responsive host species, Acacia salicina, and negatively affected the growth of the more responsive Acacia stenophylla. Together, this work demonstrates correspondence of phylotype with microbial function, and demonstrates that the dynamics of rhizobia on host species can feed back on plant population performance.
| S-EPMC3547158 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe different hypotheses proposed to explain positive species richness-productivity relationships, i.e. selection effect and complementarity effect, imply that plant functional characteristics are at the core of a mechanistic understanding of biodiversity effects.Methodology/principal findingsWe used two community-wide measures of plant functional composition, (1) community-weighted means of trait values (CWM) and (2) functional trait diversity based on Rao's quadratic diversity (FD(Q)) to predict biomass production and measures of biodiversity effects in experimental grasslands (Jena Experiment) with different species richness (2, 4, 8, 16 and 60) and different functional group number and composition (1 to 4; legumes, grasses, small herbs, tall herbs) four years after establishment. Functional trait composition had a larger predictive power for community biomass and measures of biodiversitity effects (40-82% of explained variation) than species richness per se (<1-13% of explained variation). CWM explained a larger amount of variation in community biomass (80%) and net biodiversity effects (70%) than FD(Q) (36 and 38% of explained variation respectively). FD(Q) explained similar proportions of variation in complementarity effects (24%, positive relationship) and selection effects (28%, negative relationship) as CWM (27% of explained variation for both complementarity and selection effects), but for all response variables the combination of CWM and FD(Q) led to significant model improvement compared to a separate consideration of different components of functional trait composition. Effects of FD(Q) were mainly attributable to diversity in nutrient acquisition and life-history strategies. The large spectrum of traits contributing to positive effects of CWM on biomass production and net biodiversity effects indicated that effects of dominant species were associated with different trait combinations.Conclusions/significanceOur results suggest that the identification of relevant traits and the relative impacts of functional identity of dominant species and functional diversity are essential for a mechanistic understanding of the role of plant diversity for ecosystem processes such as aboveground biomass production.
| S-EPMC3356333 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The relationship between plant productivity and species richness is one of the most debated and important issues in ecology. Ecologists have found numerous forms of this relationship and its underlying processes. However, theories and proposed drivers have been insufficient to completely explain the observed variation in the forms of this relationship. Here, we developed and validated integration models capable of combining twenty positive or negative processes affecting the relationship. The integration models generated the classic humped, asymptotic, positive, negative and irregular forms and other intermediate forms of the relationship between plant richness and productivity. These forms were linked to one another and varied according to which was considered the dependent variable. The total strengths of the different positive and negative processes are the determinants of the forms of the relationship. Positive processes, such as resource availability and species pool effects, can offset the negative effects of disturbance and competition and change the relationship. This combination method clarifies the reasons for the diverse forms of the relationship and deepens our understanding of the interactions among processes.
| S-EPMC6760178 | biostudies-literature
Project description: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 (pathogenic) fungal communities and isolated fungal species showed negative, species-specific effects on plant growth. Moreover, 57% of the pathogenic fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) recorded in plant monocultures were not detected in eight plant species plots, suggesting a loss of pathogenic OTUs with plant diversity. Our work provides strong evidence for host specificity and negative density-dependent effects of root-associated fungi on plant species in grasslands. Our work substantiates the hypothesis that fungal root pathogens are an important driver of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships.
| S-EPMC5887887 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Ecosystem functions are threatened by both recurrent droughts and declines in biodiversity at a global scale, but the drought dependency of diversity-productivity relationships remains poorly understood. Here, we use a two-phase mesocosm experiment with simulated drought and model oldfield communities (360 experimental mesocosms/plant communities) to examine drought-induced changes in soil microbial communities along a plant species richness gradient and to assess interactions between past drought (soil legacies) and subsequent drought on plant diversity-productivity relationships. We show that (i) drought decreases bacterial and fungal richness and modifies relationships between plant species richness and microbial groups; (ii) drought soil legacy increases net biodiversity effects, but responses of net biodiversity effects to plant species richness are unaffected; and (iii) linkages between plant species richness and complementarity/selection effects vary depending on past and subsequent drought. These results provide mechanistic insight into biodiversity-productivity relationships in a changing environment, with implications for the stability of ecosystem function under climate change.
| S-EPMC9067920 | biostudies-literature
Project description:While it is widely acknowledged that forest biodiversity contributes to climate change mitigation through improved carbon sequestration, conversely how climate affects tree species diversity-forest productivity relationships is still poorly understood. We combined the results of long-term experiments where forest mixtures and corresponding monocultures were compared on the same site to estimate the yield of mixed-species stands at a global scale, and its response to climatic factors. We found positive mixture effects on productivity using a meta-analysis of 126 case studies established at 60 sites spread across five continents. Overall, the productivity of mixed-species forests was 15% greater than the average of their component monocultures, and not statistically lower than the productivity of the best component monoculture. Productivity gains in mixed-species stands were not affected by tree age or stand species composition but significantly increased with local precipitation. The results should guide better use of tree species combinations in managed forests and suggest that increased drought severity under climate change might reduce the atmospheric carbon sequestration capacity of natural forests.
| S-EPMC5938561 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Plant-soil feedbacks refer to effects on plants that are mediated by soil modifications caused by the previous plant generation. Maize conditions the surrounding soil by secretion of root exudates including benzoxazinoids (BXs), a class of bioactive secondary metabolites. Previous work found that a BX-conditioned soil microbiota enhances insect resistance while reducing biomass in the next generation of maize plants. Whether these BX-mediated and microbially driven feedbacks are conserved across different soils and response species is unknown. We found the BX-feedbacks on maize growth and insect resistance conserved between two arable soils, but absent in a more fertile grassland soil, suggesting a soil-type dependence of BX feedbacks. We demonstrated that wheat also responded to BX-feedbacks. While the negative growth response to BX-conditioning was conserved in both cereals, insect resistance showed opposite patterns, with an increase in maize and a decrease in wheat. Wheat pathogen resistance was not affected. Finally and consistent with maize, we found the BX-feedbacks to be cultivar-specific. Taken together, BX-feedbacks affected cereal growth and resistance in a soil and genotype-dependent manner. Cultivar-specificity of BX-feedbacks is a key finding, as it hides the potential to optimize crops that avoid negative plant-soil feedbacks in rotations.
| S-EPMC9292949 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The loss of biodiversity is threatening ecosystem productivity and services worldwide, spurring efforts to quantify its effects on the functioning of natural ecosystems. Previous research has focused on the positive role of biodiversity on resource acquisition (i.e., niche complementarity), but a lack of study on resource utilization efficiency, a link between resource and productivity, has rendered it difficult to quantify the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship. Here we demonstrate that biodiversity loss reduces plant productivity, other things held constant, through theory, empirical evidence, and simulations under gradually relaxed assumptions. We developed a theoretical model named niche-efficiency to integrate niche complementarity and a heretofore-ignored mechanism of diminishing marginal productivity in quantifying the effects of biodiversity loss on plant productivity. Based on niche-efficiency, we created a relative productivity metric and a productivity impact index (PII) to assist in biological conservation and resource management. Relative productivity provides a standardized measure of the influence of biodiversity on individual productivity, and PII is a functionally based taxonomic index to assess individual species' inherent value in maintaining current ecosystem productivity. Empirical evidence from the Alaska boreal forest suggests that every 1% reduction in overall plant diversity could render an average of 0.23% decline in individual tree productivity. Out of the 283 plant species of the region, we found that large woody plants generally have greater PII values than other species. This theoretical model would facilitate the integration of biological conservation in the international campaign against several pressing global issues involving energy use, climate change, and poverty.
| S-EPMC4426420 | biostudies-literature
Project description:There is strong evidence for a phylogenetic signal in the degree to which species share co-evolved biotic partners and in the outcomes of biotic interactions. This implies there should be a phylogenetic signal in the outcome of feedbacks between plants and the soil microbiota they cultivate. However, attempts to identify a phylogenetic signal in plant-soil feedbacks have produced mixed results. Here we clarify how phylogenetic signals could arise in plant-soil feedbacks and use a recent compilation of data from feedback experiments to identify: whether there is a phylogenetic signal in the outcome of plant-soil feedbacks; and whether any signal arises through directional or divergent changes in feedback outcomes with evolutionary time. We find strong evidence for a divergent phylogenetic signal in feedback outcomes. Distantly related plant species show more divergent responses to each other's soil microbiota compared with closely related plant species. The pattern of divergence implies occasional co-evolutionary shifts in how plants interact with soil microbiota, with strongly contrasting feedback responses among some plant lineages. Our results highlight that it is difficult to predict feedback outcomes from phylogeny alone, other than to say that more closely related species tend to have more similar responses.
| S-EPMC7689780 | biostudies-literature