A. Conceptual diagram of the mechanistic approach of the planned Research Unit. B. Conceptual scheme of the proposed evolutionary niche shifts in plant monocultures and mixtures. This idea feeds into our understanding of how evolutionary history influences the ecological interactions of species that compete for growth factors, ultimately defining biotope space (gray rectangle; Hutchinson 1978). Graphically depicted, species (ellipses) in mixture will show increasing niche differentiation over time due to competition (niche overlap). Thus, history of selection in diverse communities is expected to result in greater interspecific differences (less overlap of ellipses) and more specialization (smaller ellipses) than a history of isolation (monocultures). In monocultures, species will experience strong selection pressure by accumulating soil-borne pathogens, and species may invest energy in chemical and morphological defense traits (depicted by ellipses shifting towards the same corner of the habitat space). Plants in mixtures together may exploit more available biotope space than single monocultures, causing increasing diversity effects on ecosystem functions over time. However, there is limited support for this assumption for traits related to light ( e.g., Lipowsky et al. 2015, Roscher et al. 2015) and resource use (Jesch et al. 2018) so far.

 
  Part of: Eisenhauer N, Bonkowski M, Brose U, Buscot F, Durka W, Ebeling A, Fischer M, Gleixner G, Heintz-Buschart A, Hines J, Jesch A, Lange M, Meyer S, Roscher C, Scheu S, Schielzeth H, Schloter M, Schulz S, Unsicker S, van Dam NM, Weigelt A, Weisser WW, Wirth C, Wolf J, Schmid B (2019) Biotic interactions, community assembly, and eco-evolutionary dynamics as drivers of long-term biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships. Research Ideas and Outcomes 5: e47042. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.5.e47042