ArticleNature communications2023
The positive effect of plant diversity on soil carbon depends on climate.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 165 citations in OpenAlex.
- Crop rotation differentially increases soil bacterial and fungal diversities in global croplands: a meta-analysis.Nature communications · 2025Pooled it
- Multilevel Impacts of Habitat Fragmentation on Plant Diversity and Structure in Urban Remnant Forests.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Using resurvey data to predict changes in ecosystem functioning across protected and unprotected coastal dunes.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2026Article
- Precipitation and plant cover promote soil organic carbon accumulation in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.AoB PLANTS · 2026Article
- Tree structural diversity mediates vegetation carbon storage in dry-hot valley savannas along an elevational gradient.Plant diversity · 2026Article
- Plant diversity's positive effect on soil respiration diminishes with increasing productivity in global forests.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Forest Attributes and Soil Moisture Availability Drive Ecosystem Multifunctionality of Forests in Eastern Tibetan Plateau, China.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Large slow-growing hydrophytes increase wetland carbon storage.Nature plants · 2026Article
- Resistance of shallow soil carbon to both short-term isolated and recurrent droughts in two semi-arid grasslands.Oecologia · 2026Article
- Spatial heterogeneity of plant diversity-productivity-carbon nexus in eastern Loess Plateau grasslands.PloS one · 2026Article
- Storage Potential of Soil Functional Carbon Fractions in the World's Largest Plantations.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Comparative Effects of Clump-Based and Traditional Selective Harvesting on Understory Biodiversity in Sympodial Bamboo Forests.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Un(der)explored links between plant diversity and particulate and mineral-associated organic matter in soil.Nature communications · 2025Review
- Contrasting Trends in Plant Diversity and Soil Carbon Mineralization Under Precipitation-Driven Vegetation and Soil Carbon Dynamics in the Mongolian Plateau.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Contrasting stability of fungal and bacterial communities during long-term decomposition of fungal necromass in Arctic tundra.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Biodiversity loss disrupts seasonal carbon dynamics in a species-rich temperate grassland.Ecology · 2025Article
- Impacts of land use and water level fluctuation on soil aggregates and nitrogen and carbon in newly formed reservoir buffer strips.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Interactive and unimodal relationships between plant biomass, abiotic factors, and plant diversity in global grasslands.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Legume green manure partial replacement of fertilizers enhances soil microbial diversity and sustains wheat yield.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
30 authors at 20 institutions in 17 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Little is currently known about how climate modulates the relationship between plant diversity and soil organic carbon and the mechanisms involved. Yet, this knowledge is of crucial importance in times of climate change and biodiversity loss. Here, we show that plant diversity is positively correlated with soil carbon content and soil carbon-to-nitrogen ratio across 84 grasslands on six continents that span wide climate gradients. The relationships between plant diversity and soil carbon as well as plant diversity and soil organic matter quality (carbon-to-nitrogen ratio) are particularly strong in warm and arid climates. While plant biomass is positively correlated with soil carbon, plant biomass is not significantly correlated with plant diversity. Our results indicate that plant diversity influences soil carbon storage not via the quantity of organic matter (plant biomass) inputs to soil, but through the quality of organic matter. The study implies that ecosystem management that restores plant diversity likely enhances soil carbon sequestration, particularly in warm and arid climates.
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