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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 26, 2025

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

Published on: March 21, 2025

Plant-soil feedbacks help explain plant community productivity.

Leslie E Forero¹, Andrew Kulmatiski¹, Josephine Grenzer¹

¹Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA.

|April 24, 2022

Summary

Plant-soil feedbacks (PSF) influence biomass production, impacting the diversity-productivity relationship. Incorporating PSF into models improved predictions of how plant communities grow and yield more biomass with increased species richness.

Keywords:

biodiversity biodiversity-productivity complementarity effect overyielding plant-soil feedback selection effect species richness underyielding

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Last Updated: Sep 26, 2025

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

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Published on: March 21, 2025

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

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Published on: March 13, 2014

A CO2 Concentration Gradient Facility for Testing CO2 Enrichment and Soil Effects on Grassland Ecosystem Function

A CO2 Concentration Gradient Facility for Testing CO2 Enrichment and Soil Effects on Grassland Ecosystem Function

Published on: November 21, 2015

Area of Science:

Ecology
Ecosystem Science
Plant Ecology

Background:

Plant productivity often correlates with species richness, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.
Plant-soil feedbacks (PSF) are hypothesized to mediate the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for predicting how biodiversity impacts ecosystem services like biomass production.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of plant-soil feedbacks (PSF) in explaining the diversity-productivity relationship.
To quantify the effects of PSF on plant community biomass production across a gradient of species richness.
To compare the predictive power of models with and without PSF for community biomass.

Main Methods:

A greenhouse experiment measuring all 240 possible plant-soil feedbacks (PSF) for 16 plant species.
Cultivation of 49 plant communities with species diversities ranging from one to 16 species.
Development and comparison of plant community growth models, with and without PSF effects, to predict observed biomass.

Main Results:

Plant-soil feedbacks (PSF) individually altered subsequent plant growth by up to 25%, with a net average decrease of 2% across all species.
Species-rich communities (16 species) produced 37% more biomass than monocultures, primarily due to complementarity effects.
Models incorporating PSF significantly improved predictions of community biomass and better explained the mechanisms driving the diversity-productivity relationship compared to models without PSF.

Conclusions:

Plant-soil feedbacks (PSF) are a significant, though complex, factor influencing the diversity-productivity relationship.
PSF contribute to explaining how biodiversity enhances ecosystem services, such as biomass production.
Integrating PSF into ecological models enhances their accuracy in predicting community dynamics and ecosystem function.