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Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC

oai:digital.csic.es:10261/281296

Data set with all the references and variables used as factors in the meta-analyses. (1) Experimental conditions, (2) Mycorrhizal treatment, (3) Ecosystem, (4) Performance measurement, including plant part (4a) and type of nutrient (4b) and (5) Mycorrhizal type. The species of the nurse and the facilitated plants are presented with the mean, sample size (N) and standard error (SE) of the performance measurement reported for the facilitated plant. Data for the control and treated treatments are presented in different columns. We considered “treated” the treatment in which the mycorrhizal fungi were expected to be reduced. NA stands for not available data. Table S3_70.xls, The diversity of pathways through which mycorrhizal fungi alter plant coexistence hinders the understanding of their effects on plant-plant interactions. The outcome of plant facilitative interactions can be indirectly affected by mycorrhizal symbiosis, ultimately shaping biodiversity patterns. We tested whether mycorrhizal symbiosis enhances plant facilitative interactions and whether its effect is consistent across different methodological approaches and biological scenarios. We conducted a meta-analysis of 215 cases (involving 21 nurse and 29 facilitated species), in which the performance of a facilitated plant species is measured in the presence or absence of mycorrhizal fungi. We show that mycorrhizal fungi significantly enhance plant facilitative interactions mainly through an increment in plant biomass (aboveground) and nutrient content, although their effects differ across biological contexts. In semiarid environments mycorrhizal symbiosis enhances plant facilitation, while its effect is non-significant in temperate ecosystems. In addition, arbuscular but not ecto-mycorrhizal (EMF) fungi significantly enhances plant facilitation, particularly increasing the P content of the plants more than EMF. Some knowledge gaps regarding the importance of this phenomenon have been detected in this meta-analysis. The effect of mycorrhizal symbiosis on plant facilitation has rarely been assessed in other ecosystems different from semiarid and temperate forests, and rarely considering other fungal benefits provided to plants besides nutrients. Finally, we are still far from understanding the effects of the whole fungal community on plant-plant interactions, and on plant species coexistence., Peer reviewed