Table 1.
Full list of plant species and genotypes comprising the grassland assemblages.
Table 2.
Composition of the grassland assemblages consisting of 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-component systems.
Table 3.
Greenhouse environmental parameters.
Fig 1.
Mesocosm leachate NO3- (mg N ∙ L-1) concentration by diversity level.
Leached NO3- values are reported by grassland diversity levels: Monocultures or 1-way component (mean of treatments 1–6), three 3-component polycultures (mean of treatments 7–9), three 6-component polycultures (mean of treatments 10–12), and a 12-component polyculture. Error bars represent ±1 SEM. Bars with contrasting letters indicate significantly different means by Tukey’s HSD test.
Table 4.
The productivity (g•m-2 dry weight) of grassland assemblages.
Fig 2.
Soil bacterial richness, as measured by Shannon Diversity (H’) Index.
The scores are displayed by grassland diversity levels: Monocultures or 1-way component (treatments 1–6), three 3-component polycultures (treatments 7–9), three 6-component polycultures (treatments 10–12), and a 12-component polyculture. Error bars represent ±1 SEM. Box plots with contrasting letters indicate significantly different means by Tukey’s HSD test.
Fig 3.
Soil fungal richness, as measured by Shannon Diversity (H’) Index.
The scores are displayed by grassland diversity levels: Monocultures or 1-way component (treatments 1–6), three 3-component polycultures (treatments 7–9), three 6-component polycultures (treatments 10–12), and a 12-component polyculture. Error bars represent ±1 SEM. Box plots with contrasting letters indicate significantly different means by Tukey’s HSD test.
Fig 4.
NMS ordination of bacterial community (T-RFLPs).
Bacterial community structure is displayed by grassland diversity levels: Monocultures or 1-way component (treatments 1–6), three 3-component polycultures (treatments 7–9), three 6-component polycultures (treatments 10–12), and a 12-component polyculture. Axis 1 R2 = 0.888 Axis 2 R2 = 0.055, cumulative R2 = 0.943.
Fig 5.
NMS ordination of fungal community (T-RFLPs).
Fungal community structure is displayed by grassland diversity levels: Monocultures or 1-way component (treatments 1–6), three 3-component polycultures (treatments 7–9), three 6-component polycultures (treatments 10–12), and a 12-component polyculture. Axis 1 R2 = 0.245 (not shown), Axis 2 R2 = 0.257, Axis 3 R2 = 0.372, cumulative R2 = 0.875.