Globally, plant-soil feedbacks are weak predictors of plant abundance

Kurt O. Reinhart; Jonathan T. Bauer; Sarah McCarthy-Neumann; Andrew S. MacDougall; José L. Hierro; Mariana C. Chiuffo; Scott A. Mangan; Johannes Heinze; Joana Bergmann; Jasmin Joshi; Richard P. Duncan; Jeff M. Diez; Paul Kardol; Gemma Rutten; Markus Fischer; Wim H. van der Putten; Thiemo Martijn Bezemer; John Klironomos

doi:10.1002/ece3.7167

Globally, plant-soil feedbacks are weak predictors of plant abundance

Kurt O. Reinhart^* (Corresponding author), Jonathan T. Bauer, Sarah McCarthy-Neumann, Andrew S. MacDougall, José L. Hierro, Mariana C. Chiuffo, Scott A. Mangan, Johannes Heinze, Joana Bergmann, Jasmin Joshi, Richard P. Duncan, Jeff M. Diez, Paul Kardol, Gemma Rutten, Markus Fischer, Wim H. van der Putten, Thiemo Martijn Bezemer, John Klironomos

^*Corresponding author for this work

NIOO - Terrestrial Ecology (TE)

Research output: Contribution to journal/periodical › Article › Scientific › peer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) have been shown to strongly affect plant performance under controlled conditions, and PSFs are thought to have far reaching consequences for plant population dynamics and the structuring of plant communities. However, thus far the relationship between PSF and plant species abundance in the field is not consistent. Here, we synthesize PSF experiments from tropical forests to semiarid grasslands, and test for a positive relationship between plant abundance in the field and PSFs estimated from controlled bioassays. We meta-analyzed results from 22 PSF experiments and found an overall positive correlation (0.12 ≤ (Formula presented.) ≤ 0.32) between plant abundance in the field and PSFs across plant functional types (herbaceous and woody plants) but also variation by plant functional type. Thus, our analysis provides quantitative support that plant abundance has a general albeit weak positive relationship with PSFs across ecosystems. Overall, our results suggest that harmful soil biota tend to accumulate around and disproportionately impact species that are rare. However, data for the herbaceous species, which are most common in the literature, had no significant abundance-PSFs relationship. Therefore, we conclude that further work is needed within and across biomes, succession stages and plant types, both under controlled and field conditions, while separating PSF effects from other drivers (e.g., herbivory, competition, disturbance) of plant abundance to tease apart the role of soil biota in causing patterns of plant rarity versus commonness.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1756-1768
Journal	Ecology and Evolution
Volume	11
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7167
Publication status	Published - 2021

Keywords

community composition
meta-analysis
plant abundance
plant dominance
plant rarity
plant-soil feedbacks
soil biota
species coexistence
international
Plan_S-Compliant_OA

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7152_ReinhartFinal published version, 749 KBLicence: CC BY

Globally, plant-soil feedbacks are weak predictors of plant abundance
Reinhart, K. O. (Creator), Bauer, J. T. (Creator), McCarthy-Neumann, S. (Creator), MacDougall, A. S. (Creator), Hierro, J. L. (Creator), Chiuffo, M. C. (Creator), Mangan, S. A. (Creator), Heinze, J. (Creator), Bergmann, J. (Creator), Joshi, J. (Creator), Duncan, R. P. (Creator), Diaz, J. A. (Creator), Kardol, P. (Creator), Rutten, G. (Creator), Fisher, M. D. (Creator), van der Putten, W. H. (Creator), Bezemer, T. M. (Creator) & Klironomos, J. (Creator), Dryad, 19 Dec 2021
Dataset
Globally, plant-soil feedbacks are weak predictors of plant abundance
Reinhart, K. O. (Creator), Bauer, J. T. (Creator), McCarthy-Neumann, S. (Creator), MacDougall, A. S. (Creator), Hierro, J. L. (Creator), Chiuffo, M. C. (Creator), Mangan, S. A. (Creator), Heinze, J. (Creator), Bergmann, J. (Creator), Joshi, J. (Creator), Duncan, R. P. (Creator), Diaz, J. A. (Creator), Kardol, P. (Creator), Rutten, G. (Creator), Fischer, M. (Creator), van der Putten, W. H. (Creator), Bezemer, T. M. (Creator) & Klironomos, J. (Creator), Dryad, 19 Dec 2020
DOI: 10.5061/dryad.3j9kd51gt
Dataset

Cite this

Reinhart, K. O., Bauer, J. T., McCarthy-Neumann, S., MacDougall, A. S., Hierro, J. L., Chiuffo, M. C., Mangan, S. A., Heinze, J., Bergmann, J., Joshi, J., Duncan, R. P., Diez, J. M., Kardol, P., Rutten, G., Fischer, M., van der Putten, W. H., Bezemer, T. M., & Klironomos, J. (2021). Globally, plant-soil feedbacks are weak predictors of plant abundance. Ecology and Evolution, 11(4), 1756-1768. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7167

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title = "Globally, plant-soil feedbacks are weak predictors of plant abundance",

abstract = "Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) have been shown to strongly affect plant performance under controlled conditions, and PSFs are thought to have far reaching consequences for plant population dynamics and the structuring of plant communities. However, thus far the relationship between PSF and plant species abundance in the field is not consistent. Here, we synthesize PSF experiments from tropical forests to semiarid grasslands, and test for a positive relationship between plant abundance in the field and PSFs estimated from controlled bioassays. We meta-analyzed results from 22 PSF experiments and found an overall positive correlation (0.12 ≤ (Formula presented.) ≤ 0.32) between plant abundance in the field and PSFs across plant functional types (herbaceous and woody plants) but also variation by plant functional type. Thus, our analysis provides quantitative support that plant abundance has a general albeit weak positive relationship with PSFs across ecosystems. Overall, our results suggest that harmful soil biota tend to accumulate around and disproportionately impact species that are rare. However, data for the herbaceous species, which are most common in the literature, had no significant abundance-PSFs relationship. Therefore, we conclude that further work is needed within and across biomes, succession stages and plant types, both under controlled and field conditions, while separating PSF effects from other drivers (e.g., herbivory, competition, disturbance) of plant abundance to tease apart the role of soil biota in causing patterns of plant rarity versus commonness.",

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Reinhart, KO, Bauer, JT, McCarthy-Neumann, S, MacDougall, AS, Hierro, JL, Chiuffo, MC, Mangan, SA, Heinze, J, Bergmann, J, Joshi, J, Duncan, RP, Diez, JM, Kardol, P, Rutten, G, Fischer, M, van der Putten, WH, Bezemer, TM & Klironomos, J 2021, 'Globally, plant-soil feedbacks are weak predictors of plant abundance', Ecology and Evolution, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 1756-1768. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7167

TY - JOUR

T1 - Globally, plant-soil feedbacks are weak predictors of plant abundance

AU - Reinhart, Kurt O.

AU - Bauer, Jonathan T.

AU - McCarthy-Neumann, Sarah

AU - MacDougall, Andrew S.

AU - Hierro, José L.

AU - Chiuffo, Mariana C.

AU - Mangan, Scott A.

AU - Heinze, Johannes

AU - Bergmann, Joana

AU - Joshi, Jasmin

AU - Duncan, Richard P.

AU - Diez, Jeff M.

AU - Kardol, Paul

AU - Rutten, Gemma

AU - Fischer, Markus

AU - van der Putten, Wim H.

AU - Bezemer, Thiemo Martijn

AU - Klironomos, John

N1 - 7152, TE; Data Archiving: Dryad

PY - 2021

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N2 - Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) have been shown to strongly affect plant performance under controlled conditions, and PSFs are thought to have far reaching consequences for plant population dynamics and the structuring of plant communities. However, thus far the relationship between PSF and plant species abundance in the field is not consistent. Here, we synthesize PSF experiments from tropical forests to semiarid grasslands, and test for a positive relationship between plant abundance in the field and PSFs estimated from controlled bioassays. We meta-analyzed results from 22 PSF experiments and found an overall positive correlation (0.12 ≤ (Formula presented.) ≤ 0.32) between plant abundance in the field and PSFs across plant functional types (herbaceous and woody plants) but also variation by plant functional type. Thus, our analysis provides quantitative support that plant abundance has a general albeit weak positive relationship with PSFs across ecosystems. Overall, our results suggest that harmful soil biota tend to accumulate around and disproportionately impact species that are rare. However, data for the herbaceous species, which are most common in the literature, had no significant abundance-PSFs relationship. Therefore, we conclude that further work is needed within and across biomes, succession stages and plant types, both under controlled and field conditions, while separating PSF effects from other drivers (e.g., herbivory, competition, disturbance) of plant abundance to tease apart the role of soil biota in causing patterns of plant rarity versus commonness.

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KW - community composition

KW - meta-analysis

KW - plant abundance

KW - plant dominance

KW - plant rarity

KW - plant-soil feedbacks

KW - soil biota

KW - species coexistence

KW - international

KW - Plan_S-Compliant_OA

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EP - 1768

JO - Ecology and Evolution

JF - Ecology and Evolution

IS - 4

ER -

Globally, plant-soil feedbacks are weak predictors of plant abundance

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