ReviewPlants (Basel, Switzerland)2026
Ecological Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Forest-Medicinal Plant Agroforestry Systems on Soil Quality and the Understory Environment.
Review in Plants (Basel, Switzerland), 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
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Long-term monoculture management of plantation forests has caused declining soil fertility and biodiversity loss, a key bottleneck for sustainable forestry. Understory cultivation of medicinal plants, forming a multi-layered vertical structure, offers a promising pathway to improve land-use efficiency while balancing ecological protection and economic benefit. Using the framework "plant functional traits-soil processes-ecosystem functions," this paper examines how forest-medicinal plant agroforestry systems affect soil quality and the understory environment. Aboveground traits (specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content) regulate soil carbon stability via litter input, while belowground traits (root architecture, exudates) drive soil structure and nutrient cycling through rhizosphere effects. These systems optimize soil pore structure through root penetration, influence organic matter accumulation via litter decomposition and root carbon input, and enhance nutrient availability via mycorrhizal symbiosis and organic acid secretion. However, poor long-term management may cause acidification, nutrient imbalance, and replant problems. Diversified carbon inputs also reshape microbial community structure, functional genes, and enzyme activities, while enhanced plant diversity regulates understory microclimate (light, temperature, moisture). Finally, the paper outlines future research directions and proposes a core "context-dependency" hypothesis, emphasizing that effect direction and intensity are nonlinearly modulated by forest type, medicinal species, and management duration.
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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.