DOI: 10.5061/dryad.8g940
title: Data from: Effects of spatial plant-soil feedback heterogeneity on plant performance in monocultures

description: 1. Plant-soil feedback (PSF) effects have almost exclusively been
 quantified on homogeneous soils, but as different plant species will
 influence their local soil differently in reality PSF effects will be
 spatially heterogeneous. Whether plant performance in soils with spatially
 heterogeneous PSF can be predicted from pot experiments with homogeneous
 soils is unclear. 2. In a greenhouse experiment we tested the response of
 monocultures of six grassland species (two grasses, two legumes, and two
 forbs) to three spatially explicit treatments (fine-grain heterogeneity,
 coarse-grain heterogeneity, and homogeneous). Sixteen patches of
 conditioned soil (~6x6 cm) were placed within each container. For
 homogeneous treatments all patches contained the same conditioned soil
 within a container. The fine-grained heterogeneous treatment contained
 four differently conditioned soils that were applied following a Latin
 square design, while for the coarse-grained heterogeneous treatment four
 contiguous square blocks of four cells each were created in each
 container. 3. In general species grew worse on soil conditioned by
 conspecifics. However, when the biomass production on all homogeneous soil
 treatments (own and foreign soils) was averaged and compared to the
 heterogeneous treatments, we found that biomass production was lower than
 expected in the heterogeneous soils. This effect of heterogeneity depended
 on both the conditioning and test species, but most heterogeneity effects
 were negative. The grain of the heterogeneity (coarse vs. fine: at the
 chosen spatial scale) did not affect plant performance. 4. We hypothesize
 that a more diverse soil community is present in spatially heterogeneous
 soils. This increases i) the chance of plants to encounter its
 antagonists, which may then rapidly increase in numbers; and ii) the scope
 for synergistic co-infections. Together this may lead to non-additive
 responses of plants to spatial heterogeneity in PSF. 5. Synthesis. Plant
 performance was lower in spatially heterogeneous soils than predicted by
 spatially homogeneous soils. In natural grasslands that have mixed plant
 communities conditioning the soil plant-soil feedback (PSF) effects on
 plant performance may therefore be more negative than what is predicted
 from pot experiments. Our results emphasise the need to incorporate the
 spatial dynamics of PSF both in empirical and modelling studies if we are
 to understand the role of PSF in plant-plant interactions and plant
 community dynamics.
description: Test phase biomass data
 per gridcellThis file containst
 shoot and root biomass data for each gridcell per container in the spatial
 PSF experiment.P2 biomass data per
 gridcell.xlsxShoot biomass in the
 conditioning phase (phase 1)Provides biomass per
 container for each of the six species at the end of the conditioning
 phase.P1
 shoot biomass.xlsxSoil chemistry of
 conditioning phaseContains soil abiotic
 parameters measured at the end of the conditioning phase (phase 1), soil
 conditoning by six species.P1 Soil
 chemistry.xlsx