The Future of Complementarity: Disentangling Causes from Consequences

Which processes drive the productivity benefits of biodiversity remain a critical, but unanswered question in ecology. We tested whether the soil microbiome mediates the diversity‐productivity relationships among late successional plant species. We found that productivity increased with plant richness in diverse soil communities, but not with low‐diversity mixtures of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi or in pasteurised soils. Diversity‐interaction modelling revealed that pairwise interactions among species best explained the positive diversity‐productivity relationships, and that transgressive overyielding resulting from positive complementarity was only observed with the late successional soil microbiome, which was both the most diverse and exhibited the strongest community differentiation among plant species. We found evidence that both dilution/suppression from host‐specific pathogens and microbiome‐mediated resource partitioning contributed to positive diversity‐productivity relationships and overyielding. Our results suggest that re‐establishment of a diverse, late successional soil microbiome may be critical to the restoration of the functional benefits of plant diversity following anthropogenic disturbance.

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“…; Barry et al . ). Interestingly, the biggest differences between post‐agricultural and native prairie soils occurred in the 2 : 2 mixture (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…; Barry et al . ). Understanding the mechanism of microbially mediated community dynamics is necessary to generate predictions of benefits of plant diversity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Soil microbiome mediates positive plant diversity‐productivity relationships in late successional grassland species

et al. 2019

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“…Indeed, a common misconception is that complementarity effects should be directly equivalent to resource complementarity or spatial complementarity (Barry et al 2019). Indeed, a common misconception is that complementarity effects should be directly equivalent to resource complementarity or spatial complementarity (Barry et al 2019).…”

Section: There Can Be Coexistence Without Overyieldingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not even wrong: Comment by Wagg et al.

Wagg

Barry

O’Brien

et al. 2019

Ecology

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“…Niche differentiation and resource partitioning between individuals allows trees to grow closer to each other, and thus lead to clustering patterns. The presence of stabilising niche differences is a precondition of complementarity (Barry et al 2019), which, in turn favors species coexistence and enhanced ecosystem functioning (Chesson 2000, Saavedra et al 2017). In a modelling study of European temperate forests across a large climatic gradient similar to ours, Morin et al (2011) found that the increase of productivity with species richness was mediated through functional complementarity in exploiting resources such as light.…”

Section: Predictorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species richness influences the spatial distribution of trees in European forests

Bastías

Truchado

Valladares

et al. 2019

Oikos

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The functioning of plant communities is strongly influenced by the number of species in the community and their spatial arrangement. This is because plants interact with their nearest neighbors and this interaction is expected to be stronger when the interacting individuals are ecologically similar in terms of resource use. Recent evidence shows that species richness alters the balance of intra‐ versus interspecific competition, but the effect of species richness, and phylogenetic and functional diversity on the spatial pattern of the plant communities remain less studied. Even far, how forest stand structure derived from past management practices can influence the relationship between species richness and spatial pattern is still unknown. Here, we evaluate the spatial distribution of woody individuals (DBH >7.5 cm) in 209 forest stands (i.e. plots) with an increasing level of species richness (from 1 up to 10 species) in six forest types along a latitudinal gradient in Europe. We used completely mapped plots to investigate the spatial pattern in each forest stand with point pattern techniques. We fitted linear models to analyze the effect of species richness (positively correlated with phylogenetic diversity) and functional diversity on tree spatial arrangements. We also controled this relationship by forest type and stand structure as a proxy of the management legacy. Our results showed a generalized positive effect of species richness and functional diversity on the degree of spatial clustering of trees, and on the spatial independence of tree sizes regardless of the forest type. Moreover, current tree spatial arrangements were still conditioned by its history of management; however its effect was independent of the number of species in the community. Our study showed that species richness and functional diversity are relevant attributes of forests influencing the spatial pattern of plant communities, and consequently forest functioning.

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The Future of Complementarity: Disentangling Causes from Consequences

Cited by 326 publications

References 100 publications

Soil microbiome mediates positive plant diversity‐productivity relationships in late successional grassland species

Soil microbiome mediates positive plant diversity‐productivity relationships in late successional grassland species

Not even wrong: Comment by Wagg et al.

Species richness influences the spatial distribution of trees in European forests

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