Table 2.
Number of studies reporting positive (+), negative (-) or neutral effects on plant performance after fertilizer or amendment application. Numbers between brackets represent the total number of species evaluated in all studies of each group. Number of species preceded by a “>” indicates an unknown higher number due to the use of a mixture of species.
| Plant performance | Effect | Treatments |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inorganic fertilizer |
Organic amendment |
Inorganic amendment |
|||||
| Herbs | Woody | Herbs | Woody | Herbs | Woody | ||
| Sowing success (cover, biomass, density) | + | 8 (>41) | 1 (>1) | 11 (>23) | 1 (>1) | 5 (>7) | 1 (1) |
| - | 1 (3) | 0 (0) | 2 (>5) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (>1) | |
| Neutral | 5 (>8) | 0 (0) | 7 (>74) | 0 (0) | 6 (>26) | 0 (0) | |
| Seedling survival (proportion of live individuals) | + | 1 (1) | 1 (3) | 0 (0) | 6 (15) | 1 (1) | 1 (4) |
| - | 1 (2) | 1 (3) | 0 (0) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | |
| Neutral | 1 (8) | 11 (35) | 0 (0) | 8 (22) | 1 (9) | 4 (14) | |
| Seedling growth (biomass, cover, diameter increase, height increase, dry mass) | + | 1 (1) | 8 (19) | 0 (0) | 8 (19) | 0 (0) | 1 (1) |
| - | 0 (0) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | |
| Neutral | 0 (0) | 10 (25) | 0 (0) | 5 (13) | 0 (0) | 4 (12) | |