Relationship between diversity and root biomasss

The importance of species richness to ecosystem functioning and services is a central tenet of biological conservation. However, most of our theory and mechanistic understanding is based on diversity found aboveground. Our study sought to better understand the relationship between diversity and belowground function by studying root biomass across a plant diversity gradient. We collected soil cores from 91 plots with between 1 to 12 aboveground tree species in three natural secondary forests to measure fine root (≤ 2 mm in diameter) biomass.Â