The research team of forest plant diversity and soil biological processes of the School of Geographical Sciences have made important breakthroughs in the study of the relationship between plant diversity and soil microorganisms. And their related results were published in Nature Communications in the form of the paper “Meta-analysis shows positive effects of plant diversity on microbial biomass and respiration”（2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09258-y）（IF=12.35）.
Soil microorganisms are key to biological diversity and many ecosystem processes in terrestrial ecosystems. However, it is still unclear how plant diversity affects soil microorganisms. Through a global meta-analysis of paired observations of plant mixtures and mono-cultures from 106 studies, the study shows that across global terrestrial ecosystems, plant diversity has great impact on soil microbial biomass, formations and functions and plays an important role in maintaining the underground ecosystem. The corresponding authors of the study are Prof. Huang Zhiqun and Prof. Chen Han from the School of Geographical Sciences, Fujian Normal University. And the study was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Grant No.:RGPIN-2014–04181, RTI-2017–00358, STPGP428641) and the Natural Science Foundation of China for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant No.:31625007).
Nature Communications is a publication of Nature Publishing Group that publishes research papers from all areas of the natural sciences, representing important advances within each field. And the papers are of great significance in both scientific research and application, providing important reference for the innovation and development of various fields. In the newly-released 2017 Journal Citation Reports (JCR), Nature Communications ranks third among the global multidisciplinary journals, only next to Nature and Science.
Full text link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09258-y
(Translated by Lin Lifen, Reviewed by Xie Xiujuan)