Impact of soil negative feedbacks on plant-species diversity
Final Report Abstract
In summary, the results of this project let us conclude that soil biota have the potential to affect plant-community composition and diversity in semi-natural grasslands: directly by restricting potentially dominant plant species and indirectly via alterations of plant-plant competitive interactions. Our results reveal the importance to account for environmental factors such as land-use intensity in studies on plant-soil interactions. In addition, our studies on root traits highlight their importance for plant soil feedback due to several abiotic and biotic interactions. Finally, incorporating plant individual size and indirect effects of soil biota in experiments under natural conditions, in combination with a stepwise separation of above- and belowground interactions may help to enhance the understanding to which extent and how the soil biota contribute to the structuring of plant communities and thus biodiversity in semi-natural grasslands.
Publications
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(2015) Negative biotic soil-effects enhance biodiversity by restricting potentially dominant plant species in grasslands, Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 17; 227–235
Heinze, J., Rillig, M.C., Bergmann, J. & Joshi, J.
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(2015) Soil biota effects on local abundances of three grass species along a land-use gradient, Oecologia
Heinze, J., Werner, T., Weber, E., Rillig, M.C. & Joshi, J.
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(2016) Plant-soil feedbacks: a comparative study on the relative importance of soil-feedbacks in the greenhouse versus the field, Oecologia, 181, 559–569
Heinze, J., Sitte, M., Schindhelm, A., Wright, J. & Joshi, J.
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(2016) The interplay between soil structure, roots and microbiota as a determinant of plant-soil feedback, Ecology and Evolution, 6, 7633–7644
Bergmann, J., Verbruggen, E., Xiang, D., Heinze, J., Joshi, J., & Rillig, M.
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Soil temperature modifies biotic plant-soil interactions, Journal of Plant Ecology
Heinze, J., Gensch, S., Weber, E. & Joshi, J.
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The impact of soil microbiota on plant species performance and diversity in seminatural grasslands, PhD Dissertation, University of Potsdam, Defence: beginning of March 2017
Heinze, J.
