Xu Zhenwei, Guo Xiao, Allen Warwick J, Hu Yi, Wang Jingfeng, Li Mingyan, Wu Linwei, Guo Weihua
Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Science, and State Key Laboratory for Vegetation Structure, Function and Construction (VegLab), Peking University, Beijing, P.R. China.
Qingdao Key Laboratory of Ecological Protection and Restoration, Ministry of Natural Resources Key Laboratory of Ecological Prewarning, Protection and Restoration of Bohai Sea, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Qingdao, P.R. China.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 1;16(1):5521. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60661-0.
Fungal diversity influences both plant diversity and ecosystem functioning, but how fungi mediate the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality is not as well understood. To address this knowledge gap, we manipulate plant species richness and soil fungal diversity (via fungicide addition) in 190 experimental plant communities and measure ten ecosystem functions to assess ecosystem multifunctionality. We find that reduced fungal diversity (via fungicide addition) decreases ecosystem multifunctionality, but only in plant communities with low species richness, indicating that soil fungal diversity can buffer the effects of plant diversity loss on ecosystem multifunctionality. Selection effects (i.e., superiority of dominant plant species) and phylogenetic clustering of the fungal community (i.e., functional redundancy) increase with plant species richness when fungicide is added, revealing potential mechanisms through which species-rich plant communities can mitigate the negative effects of reduced fungal diversity and maintain ecosystem multifunctionality. Our study emphasizes the importance of interactions between plant and fungal diversity for ecosystem multifunctionality, and highlights the need to conserve fungal diversity, especially in ecosystems with low plant diversity that are threatened by global change.
真菌多样性影响植物多样性和生态系统功能，但真菌如何介导植物多样性与生态系统多功能性之间的关系尚不清楚。为填补这一知识空白，我们在190个实验性植物群落中操纵植物物种丰富度和土壤真菌多样性（通过添加杀菌剂），并测量十种生态系统功能以评估生态系统多功能性。我们发现，降低真菌多样性（通过添加杀菌剂）会降低生态系统多功能性，但仅在物种丰富度较低的植物群落中如此，这表明土壤真菌多样性可以缓冲植物多样性丧失对生态系统多功能性的影响。当添加杀菌剂时，选择效应（即优势植物物种的优越性）和真菌群落的系统发育聚类（即功能冗余）会随着植物物种丰富度的增加而增加，揭示了物种丰富的植物群落可以减轻真菌多样性降低的负面影响并维持生态系统多功能性的潜在机制。我们的研究强调了植物和真菌多样性之间的相互作用对生态系统多功能性的重要性，并强调了保护真菌多样性的必要性，特别是在受到全球变化威胁的低植物多样性生态系统中。
