Abstract
Mixed-species plantations have been increasingly promoted as a strategy to enhance ecosystem functioning and related ecosystem processes; however, their global impacts on biomass production and nutrient cycling remain uncertain. Here we present a comprehensive meta-analysis based on a random-effects model of 8,450 paired observations from 328 studies spanning diverse climatic zones, stand structures, and silvicultural systems. We demonstrate that species mixing significantly enhances plant biomass and nutrient content compared to monocultures, with positive responses observed across trees, shrubs, litterfall, and both above- and belowground compartments. Mixed-species plantations also increase soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, phosphorus availability, microbial biomass, and leaf nutrient content while maintaining stable soil stoichiometric ratios, collectively reflecting more efficient stand-level nutrient cycling. Importantly, the magnitude of these effects was shaped by climatic and structural contexts, with stronger positive outcomes under warmer and wetter climates, increasing with species richness, and showing unimodal responses to elevation, stand age, and stand density. By synthesizing multi-scale evidence from diverse ecosystems, we reveal that species mixing promotes biomass accumulation, improves nutrient retention, and strengthens biodiversity-nutrient cycling linkages. This study highlights the potential of mixed-species plantations to enhance ecological function, advance forest restoration, and guide plantation management across diverse environmental conditions.
Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30128551.
Code availability
The code for the current analyses can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30128551.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank all the researchers whose data were used in this meta-analysis. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 32301403), and the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 425RC700 and 325QN230).
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H.Z. and J.G. conceived and designed this research; H.Z., H.F., and J.G. contributed to data analyses; H.Z. wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and edited by H.F., X.Q., M.Y., M. H., D. F.J., and J.G. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Communications Biology thanks Yuhao Feng, Henriette Christel and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editors: Man Qi and David Favero. A peer review file is available.
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Zhang, H., Feng, H., Qu, X. et al. Species mixing promotes plant biomass accumulation and nutrient cycling in forest plantations.
Commun Biol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09646-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09646-3
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