Fig. 3.
Roles of microbial diversity in determining the sign of PSF. Dependence of the sign of PSF on litter decomposabilities fL and fN is shown in a system with PL only (“PL-dominant community”) (A) and PN only (“PN-dominant community”) (B), respectively. There are three distinct configurations for the microbial community: a system with MR only (“w/ MR only”), MS only (“w/ MS only”), and with microbial diversity (“w/ diversity”). The sign of PSF is positive (“Positive PSF”, ”Positive”, “+tive”, or “+”) or negative (“Negative PSF” or “Negative”). In a system with microbial diversity, the realized microbial composition depending on litter decomposability is shown as “Shifts in microbial composition” (MS, MR and MS, or MR). If the litter decomposability is too low, the system cannot persist (“no persistence”). Parameters are set to default values (Table S1).