2003
DOI: 10.1890/02-0433
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Plant Diversity, Soil Microbial Communities, and Ecosystem Function: Are There Any Links?

Abstract: 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 com… Show more

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Cited by 1,069 publications
(817 citation statements)
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“…For example, the Broughton and Gross [9] study used FAME analysis, which incorporates fatty acids from detritus as well as soil microorganisms and is less sensitive than PLFA analysis in detecting shifts in microbial communities [36]. The other fatty-acid-based studies (i.e., [58,61], and this study) all used PLFA analysis, but the results from these studies also varied. It is possible, as suggested by Wardle [59] that plant diversity exerts a detectable effect on soil microbial communities only when plant diversity increases plant productivity.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 96%
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“…For example, the Broughton and Gross [9] study used FAME analysis, which incorporates fatty acids from detritus as well as soil microorganisms and is less sensitive than PLFA analysis in detecting shifts in microbial communities [36]. The other fatty-acid-based studies (i.e., [58,61], and this study) all used PLFA analysis, but the results from these studies also varied. It is possible, as suggested by Wardle [59] that plant diversity exerts a detectable effect on soil microbial communities only when plant diversity increases plant productivity.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 96%
“…Despite intensified interest in understanding the link between above-and belowground biodiversity and the implications that this link may have for ecosystem functioning [2,11,23,40], few studies have examined the relationship between plant diversity and soil microbial communities using culture-independent techniques; the results from the few that have are equivocal [8,9,58,61]. For example, Broughton and Gross [9] examined microbial fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) along a topographic gradient in a mid-successional temperate grassland that varied in plant diversity (from 2 to 16 species) and productivity.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
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“…For example, 51 microbes in the detrital food web decompose plant material, thus releasing nutrients for themselves and 52 plants (Harte and Kinzig 1993; Wardle et al 2004). Changes in plant communities alter the quantity and 53 composition of resource substrates within soils (Zak et al 2003; Waldrop et al 2006) which in turn alter 54 soil communities by filtering for microbes with specific traits (Waldrop et al 2004). However, these 55 indirect feedbacks act more slowly than direct feedbacks from soil organisms that parasitize or benefit 56 2010) when forming symbioses in these 'home' soils.…”
Section: Introduction 50mentioning
confidence: 99%