Plant-soil feedback and the maintenance of diversity in Mediterranean-climate shrublands
Soil biota and plant diversity
Soil biota, including symbionts such as mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria, as well as fungal and bacterial pathogens, affect terrestrial plant diversity and growth patterns (see the Perspective by van der Putten). Teste et al. monitored growth and survival in Australian shrubland plant species paired with soil biota from plants of the same species and from other plants that use different nutrient acquisition strategies. Plant-soil feedbacks appear to drive local plant diversity through interactions between the different types of plants and their associated soil biota. Bennett et al. studied plant-soil feedbacks in soil and seeds from 550 populations of 55 species of North American trees. Feedbacks ranged from positive to negative, depending on the type of mycorrhizal association, and were related to how densely the same species occurred in natural populations.
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.
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Science
Volume 355 | Issue 6321
13 January 2017
13 January 2017
Copyright
Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 18 August 2016
Accepted: 25 November 2016
Published in print: 13 January 2017
Acknowledgments
We thank the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife for providing access to field sites. Y. Khentry, G. Abbas, K. Kariman, B. Desmond, B. Jupp, and A. Lane helped with the field and glasshouse work. D. Merrit kindly provided advice on seed germination. We thank the staff from University of Western Australia Plant Growth Facilities for logistical support. The plant survival and growth data are available on Dryad (www.datadryad.org). F.P.T., E.L., P.K., and D.A.W. designed the experiment; F.P.T., E.L., and G.Z. collected the field data; F.P.T. performed the experiments and root analyses and B.L.T. performed the soil laboratory analyses; M.R., E.L., and F.P.T. developed the models. F.P.T. analyzed the data; and F.P.T., E.L., P.K., B.L.T., D.A.W., G.Z., and M.R. wrote the manuscript. Funding was provided by the Australian Research Council (ARC DP130100016) to E.L. and F.P.T. and a Hermon Slade Foundation grant (HSF 13/3) to E.L. The contribution of D.A.W. was supported by a Wallenberg Scholars award.
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Scrutinizing methods used to study plant-soil feedbacks
A recent Ecology paper (doi: 10.1002/ecy.2146 [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.2146/full]) entitled "Toward more robust plant-soil feedback research" critiques methods of Teste et al. (doi: 10.1126/science.aai8291).