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Negative to positive shifts in diversity effects on soil nitrogen over time

Nature Sustainability volume 4, pages 225–232 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Soil nitrogen (N) availability is of critical importance to the productivity of terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Plant diversity continues to decline globally due to habitat conversion and degradation, but its influence on soil N remains uncertain. By conducting a global meta-analysis of 1,650 paired observations of soil N in plant species mixtures and monocultures from 149 studies, we show that, on average across observations, soil total N is 6.1% higher in species mixtures. This mixture effect on total N becomes more positive with the number of species in mixtures and with stand age. The mixture effects on net N mineralization rate and inorganic N concentrations shift from negative in young stands to positive in older stands with greater positive effects in more-diverse mixtures. These effects of mixtures were consistent among cropland, forest and grassland ecosystems and held across climate zones. Our results suggest that plant diversity conservation not only enhances the productivity of current vegetation but also increases soil N retention that will sustain the productivity of future vegetation.

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Fig. 1: A conceptual diagram of the influence of plant diversity on the processes that control soil N.
Fig. 2: Comparison of soil total N, inorganic N and net N mineralization rate in species mixtures versus monocultures.
Fig. 3: Comparison of soil NO3–, NH4+ and NO3–/NH4+ in species mixtures versus monocultures.
Fig. 4: Predicted responses of soil total N and inorganic N to a range of plant species richness (SR) reductions at the establishment.

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Data availability

The source data underlying Figs. 1–4, Supplementary Figs. 1–8 and Supplementary Tables 1–11 are archived in Figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11400552).

Code availability

The R scripts needed to reproduce the analysis is archived in Figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11400552).

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Acknowledgements

We thank the authors whose work is included in this meta-analysis. We thank X. Chen for his suggestions on data analysis. This study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2019–05109, RGPIN-2014–04181, RTI-2017–00358, STPGP428641, and STPGP506284), Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) grant DEB-1831944 and Biological Integration Institutes grant NSF-DBI-2021898.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Natural Resources Management, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

    Xinli Chen, Han Y. H. Chen, Eric B. Searle & Chen Chen

  2. Key Laboratory for Humid Subtropical Eco-Geographical Processes of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Geography, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China

    Han Y. H. Chen

  3. Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, USA

    Peter B. Reich

  4. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Peter B. Reich

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Contributions

X.C. and H.Y.H.C. designed research; X.C. collected data; X.C. performed the meta-analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript; and X.C., H.Y.H.C., E.B.S., C.C. and P.B.R. wrote interactively through multiple rounds of revisions.

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Correspondence to Han Y. H. Chen.

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Peer review Information Nature Sustainability thanks Markus Lange, Gabriele Midolo and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–8 and Tables 1–11.

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Chen, X., Chen, H.Y.H., Searle, E.B. et al. Negative to positive shifts in diversity effects on soil nitrogen over time. Nat Sustain 4, 225–232 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00641-y

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