While we know that plants exert a certain control on soil microbial communities via their secondary metabolites, especially in the rhizosphere, we know little about how plant biodiversity affects soil microorganisms as a whole. Soil microorganisms are fundamentally linked to the cycling of soil Carbon, and other nutrients relevant for ecosystem functioning.
Hence, understanding the role biodiversity plays in potentially altering microbiome functonality and resilience is of special importance, especially in lue of environmental disturbances (i.e. drought, biodiversity loss), which are likely to become more apparent in the face of climate change.
To investigate this question, we used microbial data from The Jena Experiment, a biodiversity exploratory located in Jena, Germany, to investigate how plant species richness and functional group richness, both integral parts of plant diversity, affect soil microbial communities, their network interactions, and functional capacities.
Hence, understanding the role biodiversity plays in potentially altering microbiome functonality and resilience is of special importance, especially in lue of environmental disturbances (i.e. drought, biodiversity loss), which are likely to become more apparent in the face of climate change.
To investigate this question, we used microbial data from The Jena Experiment, a biodiversity exploratory located in Jena, Germany, to investigate how plant species richness and functional group richness, both integral parts of plant diversity, affect soil microbial communities, their network interactions, and functional capacities.
[Picture]
Birdview of the Jena Experiment field site with the different experimental blocks, and their soil texture greadients.
Key findings:
- Plant diversity induced gradual shifts in microbial community structure along the diversity gradient with increasing network complexity
- Plant diversification likely drove microbial niche partitioning, resulting in a greater proportion of microbial specialist taxa as a result of greater SOM input diversity
- This feedback loop likely enhanced network associations, stabilizing microbial networks
[Picture]
Schematic of microbial community dynamics at low and high plant diversity. Multicolored microbiota indicate taxa primarily acting as generalists, while mono-colored microbiota indicate taxa primarily acting as specialists.
Publications
Jessica Finck, Somak Chowdhury, Robert I Griffiths, Ashish A Malik, Nico Eisenhauer, Markus Lange, Lucas W Mendes, Gerd Gleixner
Environ. Microbiome, 2026