Skip to main content
Dryad

Data from: More diverse rhizobial communities can lead to higher symbiotic nitrogen fixation rates, even in nitrogen-rich soils

Taylor, Benton1; Komatsu, Kimberly2

Published Jun 25, 2024 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qrfj6q5qp

Data files

Jun 25, 2024 version files 269.97 KB

Click names to download individual files

Abstract

Symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) by legumes and their rhizobial partners is one of the most important sources of bioavailable nitrogen to terrestrial ecosystems. While most work on the regulation of SNF has focused on abiotic drivers such as light, water, and soil nutrients, the diversity of rhizobia with which an individual legume partners may play an important but under-recognized role in regulating nitrogen inputs from SNF. By experimentally manipulating the diversity of rhizobia available to legumes, we demonstrate that rhizobial diversity can increase average SNF rates by more than 90%, and that high rhizobial diversity can induce increased SNF even under conditions of high soil N fertilization. However, the effects of rhizobial diversity, the conditions under which diversity effects were strongest, and the likely mechanisms driving these diversity effects differed between the two legume species we assessed. These results provide evidence that biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships can occur at scales of an individual plant, and that the effects of rhizobial diversity may be as important as long-established abiotic factors, such as nitrogen availability, in driving terrestrial nitrogen inputs via SNF.