TY - JOUR AU - Forero, Leslie E. AU - Grenzer, Josephine AU - Heinze, Johannes AU - Schittko, Conrad AU - Kulmatiski, Andrew PY - 2019 M3 - Brief Research Report TI - Greenhouse- and Field-Measured Plant-Soil Feedbacks Are Not Correlated JO - Frontiers in Environmental Science UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2019.00184 VL - 7 SN - 2296-665X N2 - Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) have become a commonly invoked mechanism of plant coexistence and abundance. Yet, most PSF experiments have been performed in greenhouse conditions. To test whether or not greenhouse-measured PSF values are of similar magnitude and positively correlated with field-measured PSFs, we compared PSF values from five different studies that measured PSF values in both greenhouse and field conditions. For 36 plant species, greenhouse-measured PSF values were larger than and not positively correlated with field-measured PSF values. Similarly, these 36 species produced 269 soil-specific PSF values, and for each site there was no positive correlation between these greenhouse- and field-measured PSF values. While PSFs were observed in both greenhouse and field conditions, results provided no support at the soil, site or species level that a positive correlation exists between greenhouse- and field-measured PSF. Further, greenhouse-measured PSF appear to overestimate field-measured PSF. Although from five studies, results strongly suggest that field experiments are needed to understand the role of PSFs in plant communities in natural settings. ER -