Work

Temporal shifts in soil nitrogen cycling responses to plant diversity across global terrestrial ecosystems

Year: 2026

Type: article

Study designs: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis

Abstract: Nitrogen (N) is essential to all life on Earth. Despite ongoing biodiversity loss, the influence of plant diversity on soil N cycling over time remains uncertain, which limits our ability to predict terrestrial N pools and transformations globally. To determine the long‐term effects of plant diversity on soil N pools and N transformations, we conducted a global synthesis using 2129 paired observations of plant mixtures and corresponding monocultures from 135 studies across 32 countries. On average, plant mixtures have 3.1% higher soil total N content than monocultures, but 7.7% to 31.6% lower soil ammonium content, nitrate content and rates of soil N mineralization, nitrification, denitrification and N 2 O emissions. Notably, the effects of plant mixtures on soil total N content and rates of N mineralization, nitrification and denitrification shift rapidly over time from negative to positive. However, their effects on soil nitrate content and N 2 O emissions are consistently negative. Furthermore, these plant mixture effects remain consistent across ecosystems. Synthesis and applications . These findings suggest that conserving and restoring plant diversity can enhance long‐term N transformation rates and total soil N content, while reducing N 2 O emissions, collectively promoting soil N cycling sustainability and mitigating climate change‐related risks. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog .

Source: Journal of Applied Ecology

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.70310

Authors: Miaomiao Cai, Caifang Zhang, Han Y. H. Chen, Caroline N. Ndungu, Daoliang Shi, Wenzhi Liu