Plant–soil feedbacks: a meta‐analytical review

Abstract

Plants can change soil biology, chemistry and structure in ways that alter subsequent plant growth. This process, referred to as plant-soil feedback (PSF), has been suggested to provide mechanisms for plant diversity, succession and invasion. Here we use three meta-analytical models: a mixed model and two Bayes models, one correcting for sampling dependence and one correcting for sampling and hierarchical dependence (delta-splitting model) to test these hypotheses. All three models showed that PSFs have medium to large negative effects on plant growth, and especially grass growth, the life form for which we had the most data. This supports the hypothesis that PSFs, through negative frequency dependence, maintain plant diversity, especially in grasslands. PSFs were also large and negative for annuals and natives, but the delta-splitting model indicated that more studies are needed for these results to be conclusive. Our results support the hypotheses that PSFs encourage successional replacements and plant invasions. Most studies were performed using monocultures of grassland species in greenhouse conditions. Future research should examine PSFs in plant communities, non-grassland systems and field conditions.

Pervasive and strong effects of plants on soil chemistry: a meta-analysis of individual plant ‘Zinke’ effects

“…Such PSFs may drive ecosystem succession and maintain plant community diversity [38,39]. However, the vast majority of PSFs have been studied in temperate grasslands [8], where plant communities are easier to manipulate. Our results suggest that PSFs may be a ubiquitous feature of grasslands as well as forests, deserts and tundra ecosystems, at least to the extent that PSFs are determined by variation in soil chemistry.…”

“…trees, shrubs or perennial grasses), which result from variation in plant resource uptake, unique microbial communities, litter quantity, tissue quality of leaf and root litter, or some combination of these or other attributes. Our definition of individual plant effects is distinct from plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs), which are defined as plant-induced changes in soil properties that in turn affect plant growth or fitness [8]. By contrast, IPEs, as we define them, are spatially explicit and concern only the effects of plants on the soils beneath them, rather than the two-way relationship between soil properties and plant growth.…”

Influence of fire history and soil properties on plant species richness and functional diversity in a neotropical savanna

“…Plants and soil have a feedback relationship that is important to succession and competition dynamics (Kulmatiski et al 2008). However, there is an unresolved debate about the relationship between plant diversity and soil properties.…”

Resource limitation is a driver of local adaptation in mycorrhizal symbioses

“…Enriching soil with chemical fertilizers has been shown to change the species composition and abundance of AM fungi (16) and nearly eliminate populations of A. gerardii (17,18). Plant communities influence the composition of communities of soil organisms (19), and in turn, these organisms may have beneficial, detrimental, or neutral effects on plant growth and thus, generate positive or negative feedbacks (20). Studies show a preponderance of negative feedbacks in early successional plant species and positive feedbacks in late successional species (21).…”