Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage

摘要: Plant diversity strongly influences ecosystem functions and services, such as soil carbon storage. However, the mechanisms underlying positive plant effects on storage are poorly understood. We explored this relationship using long-term data from a grassland biodiversity experiment (The Jena Experiment) radiocarbon ((14)C) modelling. Here we show that higher increases rhizosphere inputs into microbial community resulting in both increased activity Increases were related to enhanced accumulation of recently fixed high-diversity plots, while had less pronounced decomposition rate existing carbon. The present study shows elevated at high is direct function community, indicating increase mainly limited by integration new