"Bill who putters" wrote in message

Biologists refer to soil as a "black box" because it is notoriously
difficult to study a tangle of roots, bacteria, fungi, tiny insects and
other creatures without isolating or changing them. Very similar results
in the greenhouse and in the field reveal that plant interactions with
soil biota alone‹not nutrients, insects, mammals or above-ground
diseases‹are sufficiently powerful and specific to explain why multiple
species co-exist and importantly the strength of those interactions can
be measured and plant species that are most abundant are least
influenced by the soil biota around their parents.
"We have dealt yet another blow to the ailing Neutral Theory of
Biodiversity, which is premised on the idea that all species are the
same," said Herre. "These two publications provide strong evidence that
there are stabilizing mechanisms that maintain diversity, and thus that
neutral dynamics do not explain plant species diversity and abundance."

Thanks - interesting, but not really surprising.