DOI: 10.5061/dryad.g464v
title: Data from: Complementarity in both plant and mycorrhizal fungal communities are not necessarily increased by diversity in the other

description: 1. Higher species diversity can improve community performance within a
 species guild when different species complement each other in their use of
 the available niche, such as through resource partitioning. However,
 species in one guild of organisms may act as resources for another such
 that the diversity in one guild alters the realized niche for species in
 another. Yet, it remains largely untested as to whether diversity in one
 guild of organisms influences species complementarity in another. 2. The
 productivity and diversity in plant and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal
 communities can be positively associated with each other through their
 typically mutualistic exchange of resources. Here we utilized these two
 interacting species guilds to determine whether greater diversity in one
 influences species complementarity in the other. This was done by creating
 monocultures and a mixture of a grass, forb, and legume in a full
 factorial design with monocultures and a mixture of four AM fungi. 3. The
 presence of AM fungi reduced differences in the performance among plant
 species and greater diversity of fungi generally improved plant
 productivity over the average of the fungal monocultures. However, plant
 species complementarity was not greatest with a higher diversity of fungi
 and was only positive with a particular fungal monoculture. 4. AM fungal
 abundance was not affected by plant diversity, but was greatly reduced in
 the grass monoculture compared to the other plant communities. Variation
 in fungal complementarity among plant communities was low overall and was
 little influenced by plant diversity. 5. Synthesis. Using a model
 plant-mycorrhizal system our results suggest that the composition rather
 than the diversity of species within one guild may be more influential in
 determining how species function within an associated species guild.
 However, our model system does not represent a broad gradient of diversity
 in either plant or fungal communities and only assesses the initial growth
 phase. Nonetheless our results highlight that changes in species
 compositions in one species guild can affect the functioning of species
 diversity in another.
description: Plant biomass and Fungal
 DNA abundancePlant biomass and AM
 fungal abundance in roots data were collected from a 12 week glasshouse
 experiment. Pot=Pot number, Plant=Plant community: (Tri = Trifolium
 monoculture, Lol = Lolium monoculture, Pla = Plantago monoculture, Mix =
 mixture of all three plants), AMF=AMF community: (Gmoss = F. mosseae
 monoculture, Gint = R. irregulare monoculture, Gclar = C. claroideum
 monoculture, Div = D. celata monoculture; All = Mix of All four fungi),
 SownTri=Number of sown Trifolium plants, SownPla=Number of sown Plantago
 plants, SownLol=Number of sown Lolium plants, NumTri=Number of Trifolium
 plants harvested, NumPla=Number of Plantago plants harvested,
 NumLol=Number of Lolium plants harvested, TriBM=Trifolium biomass (in
 grams), PlaBM=Plantago biomass (in grams), LolBM=Lolium biomass (in
 grams), InocGmoss=grams of F. mosseae inocula added to pot InocGint=grams
 of R. irregulare inocula added to pot InocGclar=grams of C. claroideum
 inocula added to pot InocDcela=grams of D. celata inocula added to pot
 GmossDNA=qPCR detected number of DNA copies of F. mosseae per mg of plant
 root, GintDNA=qPCR detected number of DNA copies of F. irregulare per mg
 of plant root, GclarDNA=qPCR detected number of DNA copies of C.
 claroideum per mg of plant root, DcelaDNA=qPCR detected number of DNA
 copies of D. celata per mg of plant rootJEcol_Dat.xls