SynthesisProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025
Positive effects of species mixing on biodiversity of understory plant communities and soil health in forest plantations.
Synthesis in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Species mixing promotes plant biomass accumulation and nutrient cycling in forest plantations.Communications biology · 2026Pooled it
- Positive effects of species mixing on biodiversity of understory plant communities and soil health in forest plantations.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Pooled it
- Comparative Functional Traits of Bamboo Monospecific Stands and Bamboo-Casuarina Mixed Stands in Coastal Sandy Land Under Different Silvicultural Regimes.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Contrasting Photochemical Stability and Oxidative Injury Shape Drought Responses in Ferns and Mosses.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Vegetation Mosaic Effects on Soil Microbial Community Structure and Enzyme Functioning in Relation to Nutrient Heterogeneity in a Mountainous Ecotone.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Rhizosphere Microbial Effects on Soil Quality ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Human pressure and biodiversity modify forest resilience after extreme multi-year droughts.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Alfalfa mulching improved soil health and ecosystem multifunctionality ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Mechanisms by stand density regulates soil multifunctionality via soil environment and microbial network topology in aFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Effect of intercropping medicinal herbs inFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Responses of Soil Microbial Communities and Anthracnose Dynamics to Different Planting Patterns inMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Absorptive Roots Prioritize Chemical over Morphological Investment Under Litter Addition in a Qinling Pine-Oak Mixed Forest.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Storage Potential of Soil Functional Carbon Fractions in the World's Largest Plantations.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Increasing the Proportion of Broadleaf Species in Mixed Conifer-Broadleaf Forests Improves Understory Plant Composition and Promotes Soil Carbon Fixation.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mycelial traits and GRSP in enhancing soil stability on cold region highway slopes: Comparative effects of three shrub species.PloS one · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Mixed-species plantations are increasingly recognized for their potential to maintain forest biodiversity and soil health; however, a comprehensive assessment of their global effectiveness is lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of 7,045 paired observations between mixed-species and monoculture plantations, derived from 311 studies across diverse forest ecosystems worldwide. Our results show that mixed-species plantations significantly increased understory plant biomass, cover, and species richness by 32.6%, 55.4%, and 32.2%, respectively, compared to monocultures. Furthermore, the Shannon and Pielou diversity indices increased by 28.2% and 8.6%, respectively, and the Simpson index increased by 9.6%. When understory shrub and herbaceous species were considered separately, species mixing had significantly positive effects on shrub diversity but had no effect on herbaceous diversity. Moreover, mixed-species plantations markedly improved soil physical and chemical properties compared to monocultures. These improvements include increases in soil nutrient content (9.6 to 17.8%) and nutrient availability (14.7 to 33.5%), soil microbial biomass (17.2 to 28.8%), and soil carbon sequestration (7.2 to 19.9%). These enhancements were particularly pronounced in plantations that included legumes. Our findings reveal that the benefits of species mixing are influenced by climatic conditions, geographic location, and stand age, with the most substantial effects observed in temperate regions and mature stands. This study underscores the critical role of mixed-species plantations in promoting sustainable forest management and mitigating the ecological limitations of monocultures.
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