ArticlePloS one2026
Plant trait diversity buffers soil moisture dynamics on coastal dikes during drought periods.
Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Soil moisture is considered a key component for the structural integrity of engineered ecosystems, such as sea dikes. Although plants are important determinants of physical soil properties in dike greening, research lacks on the extent to which greater biodiversity can mitigate soil moisture loss during extreme weather events. This provided the motivation to investigate the influence of two plant communities of different species composition - namely, an herb-dominated vegetation area ('Mix-Herb') compared to a grass-dominated area ('Mix-Grass') - on soil physical conditions over the course of one year on a summer dike in northern Germany. Vegetation mapping, high-resolution measurements of soil temperature and moisture, and comprehensive precipitation data provided the framework for the investigations. It was found that species diversity (Shannon Index) declined over time from 2.7 to 2.3 for 'Mix-Herb' and from 2.2 to 2.0 for 'Mix-Grass'. In-situ measurements of soil physical conditions revealed that the 'Mix-Herb' plant community moderated diurnal soil temperature variations more effectively than 'Mix-Grass'. During a drought in June 2023, the 'Mix-Herb' vegetation area was also considerably less affected by soil heating and moisture deficit. However, after mowing, the thermal buffer effect reversed and greater diurnal temperature variations occurred in the soils of the herbaceous vegetation. During a second drought in September 2023, the'Mix-Grass'soils exhibited higher moisture loss rates after mowing. These findings highlight the importance of the functional composition of plant communities and management practices such as mowing schedules, tailored spatially and temporally to ecological and climatic conditions, for regulating the soil microclimate on dike systems, with potential implications for dike's resistance under climatic extremes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.