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

REINHART, KURT O.; BAUER, JONATHAN T.; MCCARTHY?NEUMANN, SARAH; MACDOUGALL, ANDREW S.; HIERRO, JOSÉ L.; CHIUFFO, MARIANA C.; MANGAN, SCOTT A.; HEINZE, JOHANNES; BERGMANN, JOANA; JOSHI, JASMIN; DUNCAN, RICHARD P.; DIEZ, JEFF M.; KARDOL, PAUL; RUTTEN, GEMMA; FISCHER, MARKUS; PUTTEN, WIM H.; BEZEMER, THIEMO MARTIJN; KLIRONOMOS, JOHN

Ecology and Evolution

wiley

Año: 2021

2045-7758

Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) have been shown to strongly affect plant performanceunder controlled conditions, and PSFs are thought to have far reaching consequencesfor plant population dynamics and the structuring of plant communities. However, thus far the relationship between PSF and plant species abundance in the field is notconsistent. Here, we synthesize PSF experiments from tropical forests to semiaridgrasslands, and test for a positive relationship between plant abundance in the fieldand PSFs estimated from controlled bioassays. We meta-analyzed results from 22PSF experiments and found an overall positive correlation (0.12 ≤ r ≤ 0.32) betweenplant abundance in the field and PSFs across plant functional types (herbaceous andwoody plants) but also variation by plant functional type. Thus, our analysis providesquantitative support that plant abundance has a general albeit weak positive relationshipwith PSFs across ecosystems. Overall, our results suggest that harmful soilbiota 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 furtherwork is needed within and across biomes, succession stages and plant types, bothunder controlled and field conditions, while separating PSF effects from other drivers(e.g., herbivory, competition, disturbance) of plant abundance to tease apart the roleof soil biota in causing patterns of plant rarity versus commonness.