Plant and bacterial diversity co-regulate ecosystem multifunctionality in subtropical grasslands of southwestern China.
Ali Shah J, Ali S, De Boeck HJ, Wu J
Soil Health
Mixing clovers and wildflowers into a grass-only lawn patch or meadow strip doesn't just add color — it recruits a more diverse bacterial community underground that keeps nutrients cycling and the whole system humming at a level no monoculture lawn can reach.
Scientists planted grassland plots with anywhere from one to seven different plant types — grasses, clovers, and flowering herbs — and tracked how well each plot performed across two years. The more diverse plots got dramatically better at doing everything at once: growing biomass, holding nutrients, supporting life. They also discovered that the bacteria living in the soil under diverse plantings were the key underground partners, while soil fungi turned out not to matter much for this overall performance boost.
Key Findings
Seven-species mixed plots increased overall ecosystem function by 72.6% compared to single-species monocultures by the second year of the experiment.
Both plant diversity and soil bacterial diversity were strongly and positively linked to ecosystem multifunctionality (P < 0.001), but soil fungal diversity showed no significant relationship.
The diversity-function relationship reversed direction between years — it was negative in year one (2023) but became significantly positive by year two (2024), highlighting that short-term experiments can mislead.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A two-year field experiment in Chinese subtropical grasslands found that mixing more plant species — grasses, legumes, and herbs together — dramatically boosts how well those grasslands function overall, with seven-species plots outperforming single-species plots by nearly 73%. Crucially, soil bacteria (not fungi) amplify this effect, making plant and bacterial diversity the twin engines of grassland health.
Abstract Preview
Grasslands are critical for ecosystem multifunctionality but face severe degradation from anthropogenic pressures. However, previous studies have typically examined plant or microbial diversity in ...
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