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Belowground biodiversity effects of plant symbionts support aboveground productivity
Author(s) -
Wagg Cameron,
Jansa Jan,
Schmid Bernhard,
van der Heijden Marcel G. A.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01666.x
Subject(s) - biodiversity , monoculture , ecosystem , productivity , biology , ecology , complementarity (molecular biology) , plant community , species richness , agroforestry , agronomy , genetics , economics , macroeconomics
Ecology Letters (2011) 14 : 1001–1009 Abstract Soil microbes play key roles in ecosystems, yet the impact of their diversity on plant communities is still poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that the diversity of belowground plant‐associated soil fungi promotes plant productivity and plant coexistence. Using additive partitioning of biodiversity effects developed in plant biodiversity studies, we demonstrate that this positive relationship can be driven by complementarity effects among soil fungi in one soil type and by a selection effect resulting from the fungal species that stimulated plant productivity the most in another soil type. Selection and complementarity effects among fungal species contributed to improving plant productivity up to 82% and 85%, respectively, above the average of the respective fungal species monocultures depending on the soil in which they were grown. These results also indicate that belowground diversity may act as insurance for maintaining plant productivity under differing environmental conditions.