The productivity and composition of plant communities is determined by a hierarchical set of factors, including climate, soil type, regional species pools, and aboveground herbivores. There are strong indications that biotic interactions in the rhizosphere play a profound role in determining the actual composition of plant communities, but the mechanisms are still unclear. We defined two types of interactions in the rhizosphere, those based on dead plant material (indirect interactions) and the ones based on living plant roots(direct interactions).
Our ambition is to gain a better understanding of the links between biological compartments of the rhizosphere and the consequences of their interactions for plants at the individual and community scales.