PubMed · 2026-06-13
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.
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.