Abstract

Soil biota influence plant performance through plant-soil feedback, but it is unclear whether the strength of such feedback depends on plant traits and whether plant-soil feedback drives local plant diversity. We grew 16 co-occurring plant species with contrasting nutrient-acquisition strategies from hyperdiverse Australian shrublands and exposed them to soil biota from under their own or other plant species. Plant responses to soil biota varied according to their nutrient-acquisition strategy, including positive feedback for ectomycorrhizal plants and negative feedback for nitrogen-fixing and nonmycorrhizal plants. Simulations revealed that such strategy-dependent feedback is sufficient to maintain the high taxonomic and functional diversity characterizing these Mediterranean-climate shrublands. Our study identifies nutrient-acquisition strategy as a key trait explaining how different plant responses to soil biota promote local plant diversity.

Published in

Science
2017, Volume: 355, number: 6321, pages: 173-176

SLU Authors

• Kardol, Paul

  • Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Wardle, David

  • Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aai8291

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/79213