Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39935235›Full record

ArticleEcology2025

Interactive effects of leaf pathogens and plant mycorrhizal type on plant diversity-productivity relationships.

Nianxun Xi, Yansong Zhao, Marina Semchenko

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Ecology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Nianxun XiHainan Baoting Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, School of Ecology, Hainan University, Haikou, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1711-3875
Yansong ZhaoDepartment of Microbial Population Biology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany.
Marina SemchenkoInstitute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.

Funding

European Research Council 101044424Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, Ministry of Education K202003National Natural Science Foundation of China 31600342
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Diversity-productivity relationships can differ between forests dominated by different mycorrhizal types and be modulated by specialist and generalist pathogens. However, little is known about how these factors interact to modulate biodiversity effects. We addressed this knowledge gap with a 2-year experiment combining the manipulation of plant richness (one, two, four, eight species) and mycorrhizal tree type (arbuscular mycorrhizal [AM] tree-dominated; ecto-mycorrhizal [ECM] tree-dominated) with fungicide application for leaf pathogens (added or control). Biodiversity effects were quantified for community productivity and its two components (shoots and roots). We observed nonlinear diversity-productivity relationships, with the productivity of ECM tree-dominated communities increasing at low to intermediate diversity and declining at the highest species richness. Foliar fungicide application reduced positive complementarity effects and increased productivity in both ECM tree monocultures as well as eight-species mixtures. This finding suggests that the dilution effects of specialized pathogens may dominate at low diversity, while the spillover effects of generalist pathogens may become dominant at high diversity, resulting in unimodal diversity-productivity relationships. In AM tree-dominated communities, aboveground productivity strongly increased in response to leaf pathogen suppression in eight-species mixtures, and the release from leaf pathogens benefited most of the species that were most productive in fungicide-treated monocultures. This agrees with the prediction that spillover effects of generalist pathogens in diverse plant communities could differentially suppress highly productive species due to the trade-off between growth and defense. In addition, positive biodiversity effects on root production were significantly stronger in AM tree- than ECM tree-dominated communities. Our results demonstrate that relationships between plant diversity and productivity can be nonlinear due to the combined effects of specialized and generalized plant-fungal interactions, depend on plant mycorrhizal type, and differ between aboveground and belowground compartments.

Indexed as

BiodiversityMycorrhizaePlant LeavesTreesFungiFungicides, IndustrialPlant RootsFungicides, Industrialbiodiversity losscompetitioncomplementaritydiversity–productivity relationshipmycorrhizal fungiplant–pathogen interactions

Identifiers

PMID39935235
PMCPMC11814911

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.