Plant-Soil Feedback: Bridging Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
Mariotte PEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Laboratory of Ecological Systems (ECOS), Station 2, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Site Lausanne, Case postale 96, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Mehrabi ZUniversity of British Columbia, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z, Canada.
Bezemer TMNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Droevendaalsesteeg 10, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands; Leiden University, Institute of Biology, Section Plant Ecology & Phytochemistry, PO Box 9505, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
De Deyn GBSoil Biology and Biological Soil Quality, Wageningen University and Research, PO Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Kulmatiski AUtah State University, Department of Wildland Resources, Logan, UT 84322, USA.
Drigo BUniversity of South Australia, Future Industries Institute (FII), GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, 5001 SA, Australia.
Veen GFCNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Droevendaalsesteeg 10, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands.
van der Heijden MGAPlant-Soil Interactions, Agroscope, 8046 Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland; Plant-Microbe Interactions, Institute of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Kardol PSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Ecology and Management, 90183, Umeå, Sweden. Electronic address: paul.kardol@slu.se.
English
In agricultural and natural systems researchers have demonstrated large effects of plant-soil feedback (PSF) on plant growth. However, the concepts and approaches used in these two types of systems have developed, for the most part, independently. Here, we present a conceptual framework that integrates knowledge and approaches from these two contrasting systems. We use this integrated framework to demonstrate (i) how knowledge from complex natural systems can be used to increase agricultural resource-use efficiency and productivity and (ii) how research in agricultural systems can be used to test hypotheses and approaches developed in natural systems. Using this framework, we discuss avenues for new research toward an ecologically sustainable and climate-smart future.