Global evidence that plant diversity suppresses pests and promotes plant performance and crop production

Nian-Feng Wan; Yu-Quan Wang; Liwan Fu; Jie Liu; Ben A Woodcock; Yue-Qing Hu; Anu Eskelinen; Andy Hector; Michel Loreau; Yann Hautier; Richard D Bardgett; Paul Kardol; Debra Zuppinger-Dingley; Lauchlan H Fraser; James M Bullock; Shinichi Nakagawa; Siyuan Shen; Fengfei Xin; Da-Peng Shi; Zhong Li; Jia Zhou; Christoph Scherber

doi:10.1038/s41559-025-02964-5

Global evidence that plant diversity suppresses pests and promotes plant performance and crop production

Nian-Feng Wan^*
, Yu-Quan Wang
, Liwan Fu
, Jie Liu
, Ben A Woodcock
, Yue-Qing Hu
, Anu Eskelinen
, Andy Hector
, Michel Loreau
, Yann Hautier
, Richard D Bardgett
, Paul Kardol
, Debra Zuppinger-Dingley
, Lauchlan H Fraser
, James M Bullock
, Shinichi Nakagawa
, Siyuan Shen
, Fengfei Xin
, Da-Peng Shi
, Zhong Li

Jia Zhou, Christoph Scherber

^*Corresponding author for this work

Sub Ecology and Biodiversity

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The diversity-productivity relationship suggests that increasing plant species could increase primary productivity, with this effect being explained in part by the suppression of plant antagonists. We conducted a global synthesis of 609 studies to investigate how plant diversity affects plants and their antagonists. Here we show that increasing plant species consistently promotes plant performance and suppresses antagonist performance in agro-ecosystems, grasslands and forests, for herbaceous and woody plants, across tropical and temperate zones, and for replacement series and additive experimental design studies. Crop diversification (for example, intercropping and cover cropping) indirectly promotes crop production through the suppression of pests. This shows that diversifying planting systems can increase productivity while reducing reliance on synthetic pesticides, offering a sustainable pathway for agriculture from subsistence to large-scale agriculture. Overall, these results suggest that crop diversification has considerable potential to support sustainable agro-ecosystems that benefit productivity while reducing reliance on synthetic pesticides.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	293-307
Number of pages	15
Journal	Nature Ecology & Evolution
Volume	10
Issue number	2
Early online date	20 Jan 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02964-5
Publication status	Published - Feb 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2026.

Funding

We thank all of the researchers whose data and work have been included in this meta-analysis. N.-F.W. was supported by the Shanghai Agriculture Applied Technology Development Program, China (grant number 2023-02-08-00-12-F04586), Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (22ZR1417200), National Natural Science Foundation of China (32172484), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JKY01231718), Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan from Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission of China (22015821000) and National Ten Thousand Plan-Young Top Talents of China. L.F. was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82204063). Y.-Q.H. was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFF1205101) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11971117). B.A.W. is funded through the Natural Environment Research Council RestREco (NE/V006444/1) and AgZero+ (NE/ W005050/1) projects. D.Z.-D. was supported by the University of Zurich Research Priority program on Global Change and Biodiversity.

Funders	Funder number
Science and Technology Innovation Plan Of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission
Universität Zürich
AgZero+	NE/ W005050/1
Shanghai Agriculture Applied Technology Development Program	2023-02-08-00-12-F04586
Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai Municipality	22ZR1417200
National Natural Science Foundation of China	32172484
Natural Environment Research Council	NE/V006444/1
National Key Research and Development Program of China	2023YFF1205101, 11971117
National Ten Thousand Plan-Young Top Talents of China	82204063
Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality	22015821000
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities	JKY01231718

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Wan, N.-F., Wang, Y.-Q., Fu, L., Liu, J., Woodcock, B. A., Hu, Y.-Q., Eskelinen, A., Hector, A., Loreau, M., Hautier, Y., Bardgett, R. D., Kardol, P., Zuppinger-Dingley, D., Fraser, L. H., Bullock, J. M., Nakagawa, S., Shen, S., Xin, F., Shi, D.-P., ... Scherber, C. (2026). Global evidence that plant diversity suppresses pests and promotes plant performance and crop production. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 10(2), 293-307. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02964-5

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abstract = "The diversity-productivity relationship suggests that increasing plant species could increase primary productivity, with this effect being explained in part by the suppression of plant antagonists. We conducted a global synthesis of 609 studies to investigate how plant diversity affects plants and their antagonists. Here we show that increasing plant species consistently promotes plant performance and suppresses antagonist performance in agro-ecosystems, grasslands and forests, for herbaceous and woody plants, across tropical and temperate zones, and for replacement series and additive experimental design studies. Crop diversification (for example, intercropping and cover cropping) indirectly promotes crop production through the suppression of pests. This shows that diversifying planting systems can increase productivity while reducing reliance on synthetic pesticides, offering a sustainable pathway for agriculture from subsistence to large-scale agriculture. Overall, these results suggest that crop diversification has considerable potential to support sustainable agro-ecosystems that benefit productivity while reducing reliance on synthetic pesticides.",

author = "Nian-Feng Wan and Yu-Quan Wang and Liwan Fu and Jie Liu and Woodcock, \{Ben A\} and Yue-Qing Hu and Anu Eskelinen and Andy Hector and Michel Loreau and Yann Hautier and Bardgett, \{Richard D\} and Paul Kardol and Debra Zuppinger-Dingley and Fraser, \{Lauchlan H\} and Bullock, \{James M\} and Shinichi Nakagawa and Siyuan Shen and Fengfei Xin and Da-Peng Shi and Zhong Li and Jia Zhou and Christoph Scherber",

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doi = "10.1038/s41559-025-02964-5",

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Wan, N-F, Wang, Y-Q, Fu, L, Liu, J, Woodcock, BA, Hu, Y-Q, Eskelinen, A, Hector, A, Loreau, M, Hautier, Y, Bardgett, RD, Kardol, P, Zuppinger-Dingley, D, Fraser, LH, Bullock, JM, Nakagawa, S, Shen, S, Xin, F, Shi, D-P, Li, Z, Zhou, J & Scherber, C 2026, 'Global evidence that plant diversity suppresses pests and promotes plant performance and crop production', Nature Ecology & Evolution, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 293-307. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02964-5

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AU - Kardol, Paul

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AU - Fraser, Lauchlan H

AU - Bullock, James M

AU - Nakagawa, Shinichi

AU - Shen, Siyuan

AU - Xin, Fengfei

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Global evidence that plant diversity suppresses pests and promotes plant performance and crop production

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