Plant community evenness responds to spatial plant–soil feedback heterogeneity primarily through the diversity of soil conditioning

Plant–soil feedback ( PSF ) has been identified as a key driver of local plant diversity and evenness in competitive communities. However, while it has been shown that spatial PSF heterogeneity can alter plant performance and competitive interactions, there is no proof of principle that spatial PSF heterogeneity enhances community diversity. Using a grassland model system, we separated two aspects of spatial heterogeneity: the number of species...