Sick plants in grassland communities: a growth‐defense trade‐off is the main driver of fungal pathogen abundance

Aboveground fungal pathogens can substantially reduce biomass production in grasslands. However, we lack a mechanistic understanding of the drivers of fungal pathogen infection and impact. Using a grassland global change and biodiversity experiment we show that the trade-off between plant growth and defense is the main determinant of infection incidence. In contrast, nitrogen addition only indirectly increased incidence via shifting plant...