ArticleNature communications2023
Dilution of specialist pathogens drives productivity benefits from diversity in plant mixtures.
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 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analysis shows that plant mixtures reduce pathogens and invertebrate herbivores and increase plant productivity.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Inoculation with old-growth microbes improves restoration quality and reduces non-native encroachment after seven years.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2026Article
- Differential Effects of Long-Term Fertilization and Plant Species Richness on Soil Fungi and Protists.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Neighbours rewire plant-soil feedback patterns via reshaping root microbiomes.Nature plants · 2026Article
- Article
- The phylogenetic structure of plant communities drives the belowground transmission of fungal pathogens.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Fungal diversity, ecology and functions in soil ecosystems.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Trait-based approaches to restoration ecology: Synthesizing insights from diverse systems.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2026Review
- Plant diversity induces shifts from microbial generalists to specialist by enhancing niche differentiation, microbiome connectivity, and network stability in a temperate grassland.Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- Legacies of consecutive summer droughts on soil-borne plant parasitic protists (Oomycota: Stramenopila and Phytomyxea: Rhizaria) and protistan consumers (Cercozoa: Rhizaria) along an experimental plant diversity gradient.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Contrast in Mycorrhizal Associations Leads to Divergent Rhizosphere Metabolomes and Plant-Soil Feedback Among Grassland Species.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Soil-Borne Pathogens Reflect Agricultural Land-Use Legacies.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Amphibian Strategies Against Attacks by Flies: Host-Specificity and Threats.Ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Pathogen dilution, resource partitioning, and precipitation generate productivity benefits from plant diversity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Contrasting Diversity and Network Dynamics of Soil Fungal Functional Groups in the Plant Rhizosphere.Microbial ecology · 2025Article
- Origin matters: mycorrhizal growth response and induced resistance to pathogens depend on mycorrhizal and pathogen source.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Application of Microbiome Feedback Theory to Animals: Can Parasites Drive Coexistence in Ungulate Communities?Integrative and comparative biology · 2025Article
- Optimizing crop varietal mixtures for viral disease management: A case study on cassava virus epidemics.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Soil microbial legacy mediated by buckwheat flavonoids enhances cabbage resistance to clubroot disease.Microbiome · 2025Article
- A Simplified and Integrated View of Disease Control in Varietal Mixtures Using the Phytobiome Framework.Plant, cell & environment · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Productivity benefits from diversity can arise when compatible pathogen hosts are buffered by unrelated neighbors, diluting pathogen impacts. However, the generality of pathogen dilution has been controversial and rarely tested within biodiversity manipulations. Here, we test whether soil pathogen dilution generates diversity- productivity relationships using a field biodiversity-manipulation experiment, greenhouse assays, and feedback modeling. We find that the accumulation of specialist pathogens in monocultures decreases host plant yields and that pathogen dilution predicts plant productivity gains derived from diversity. Pathogen specialization predicts the strength of the negative feedback between plant species in greenhouse assays. These feedbacks significantly predict the overyielding measured in the field the following year. This relationship strengthens when accounting for the expected dilution of pathogens in mixtures. Using a feedback model, we corroborate that pathogen dilution drives overyielding. Combined empirical and theoretical evidence indicate that specialist pathogen dilution generates overyielding and suggests that the risk of losing productivity benefits from diversity may be highest where environmental change decouples plant-microbe interactions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.