Understorey biodiversity supports multiple ecosystem services in mature Mediterranean forests

4 páginas.- 3 figuras.- 19 referencias.- Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi. org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108774
Overstorey biodiversity is known to drive multiple ecosystem functions in mature forests. However, the role of understorey biodiversity in regulating the soil microbiome and ecosystem multiservices of these ecosystems is virtually unknown. Here, we collected vegetation and soil data from mature plantation Mediterranean pine forests (100 years old) with different combinations of tree and understorey plant species to explore the contri-bution of overstorey and understorey biodiversity for explaining soil microbiomes and ecosystem multiservices. We found that while overstorey diversity is important for supporting soil-borne pathogen control, forest understorey biodiversity is critical for explaining soil nutrient availability, tree production, and soil-plant mutualistic relationships. Our results highlight the importance of understorey biodiversity for maintaining ecosystem multiservices in mature forests, which should be considered in forest management programs.
We acknowlege support from the Humboldt Research Foundation. MDB acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the I+D+i project PID2020-115813RA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. M.D-B. is also supported by a project of the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades of the Junta de Andalucía (FEDER Andalucía 2014–2020 Objetivo temático “01 - Refuerzo de la investigación, el desarrollo tecnológico y la innovación”) associated with the research project P20_00879 (ANDABIOMA). S.E.L was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 32101491) and fellowship of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M701968). NE acknowledge support by iDiv (German Research Foundation [DFG]–FZT 118, 202548816) and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (DFG; Ei 862/29-1), both granted by the German Research Foundation. The Jena Experiment is funded by the DFG (FOR 5000). DJE is supported by the Hermon Slade Foundation