Plant-soil feedbacks mediated by humus forms: a review

Jean-François Ponge (1)

1 MAOAC - Mécanismes adaptatifs : des organismes aux communautés

The present review was undertaken to add more information on the place taken by humus forms in plant-soil interactions. Three questions were asked: (i) are humus forms under the control of plant-soil relationships, (ii) are humus forms the main seat of these relationships, and (iii) can humus forms explain interactions between aboveground and belowground biodiversity. Some conflicting views about humped-back models of species richness may be resolved by considering a limited number of stable humus forms (here considered as ecosystem strategies) which should be treated separately rather than in a single model. Mull, moder and mor pathways are each characterized by a fine tuning between aboveground and belowground communities, the humus form (including litter) being the place where resonance between these communities takes place, both in functional and evolutionary sense.

Mots clés: humus forms; plant-soil relationships; aboveground-belowground biodiversity

Domaines: Science des sols

Jean-François Ponge. Plant-soil feedbacks mediated by humus forms: a review. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 2013, 57, pp.1048-1060. ⟨10.1016/j.soilbio.2012.07.019⟩. ⟨hal-00785571⟩