Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Communications Biology

Author ORCID Identifier

Leslie E. Forero https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9577-8725

Andrew Kulmatiski https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9977-5508

Josephine Grenzer https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2223-0566

Jeanette M. Norton https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6596-8691

Volume

4

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Publication Date

6-25-2021

First Page

1

Last Page

8

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Abstract

Species-rich plant communities can produce twice as much aboveground biomass as monocultures, but the mechanisms remain unresolved. We tested whether plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) can help explain these biodiversity-productivity relationships. Using a 16-species, factorial field experiment we found that plants created soils that changed subsequent plant growth by 27% and that this effect increased over time. When incorporated into simulation models, these PSFs improved predictions of plant community growth and explained 14% of overyielding. Here we show quantitative, field-based evidence that diversity maintains productivity by suppressing plant disease. Though this effect alone was modest, it helps constrain the role of factors, such as niche partitioning, that have been difficult to quantify. This improved understanding of biodiversity-productivity relationships has implications for agriculture, biofuel production and conservation.

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