PLANT DIVERSITY, SOIL MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES, AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION: ARE THERE ANY LINKS?

A current debate in ecology centers on the extent to which ecosystem function depends on biodiversity. Here, we provide evidence from a long-term field manipulation of plant diversity that soil microbial communities, and the key ecosystem processes that they mediate, are significantly altered by plant species richness. After seven years of plant growth, we determined the composition and function of soil microbial communities beneath experimental plant diversity treatments containing 1–16 species. Microbial community biomass, respiration, and fungal abundance significantly increased with greater plant diversity, as did N mineralization rates. However, changes in microbial community biomass, activity, and…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• UD
  U.S. Department of Agriculture
• UF
  U.S. Forest Service
• BA
  Biological and Environmental Research