Current soil phosphorus (P) management is neither environmentally nor economically sustainable. Soil biodiversity has been offered as a solution to unsustainable land management and to promote ecosystem service provision. We know soil biology is instrumental in plant access to soil P, but specific effects of biological complexity, (used here to describe the number of links between different organisms), under different P levels on plant productivity are not well understood. We conducted a meta-analysis on relevant literature, which reported the response of terrestrial plants of economic and anthropogenic importance to P conditions, and controlled for biological treatments across different land-uses (arable, grassland and woodland). We hypothesised that: 1) in arable systems increased biological complexity will enhance plant productivity; 2) in perennial systems such as grassland and woodlands, increasing biological complexity will have no effect; 3) increasing the fertility of the system by addition of P fertiliser will reduce any benefits of biological complexity. We found that soil organisms are not always beneficial to plant shoot biomass, but that the effects of - and interaction among - bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, mycorrhizae, collembola and earthworms differ in their impact on plant biomass (positive or negative) dependent on the presence of other community members, P-level status and time. These findings bring into question existing frameworks that link below-ground biodiversity with above-ground plant productivity. We recommend further experimental work be conducted, which controls for land-use, P status, and soil biological composition and complexity. Such work should be followed by future systematic reviews, which could pragmatically inform more tailored biological management for plant P requirements, land-use and ecosystem service provision. To enable further meta-analyses of this type we recommend habitual inclusion of sufficient experimental detail and data, as a prerequisite for publication and a useful way to utilise increased online publication space.

当前的土壤磷（P）管理在环境和经济上都不可持续。提供了土壤生物多样性作为不可持续土地管理和促进生态系统服务提供的解决方案。我们知道土壤生物学在植物获取土壤磷方面发挥了重要作用，但对于磷水平不同对植物生产力的生物学复杂性（用于描述不同生物之间联系的数量）的具体影响，人们还没有很好的了解。我们对相关文献进行了荟萃分析，其中报道了经济和人为重要的陆生植物对磷条件的反应，并控制了不同土地用途（耕地，草地和林地）的生物处理。我们假设：1）在耕种系统中，生物复杂性的增加将提高植物的生产力；2）在多年生系统（例如草地和林地）中，增加生物复杂性不会产生任何影响；3）通过添加磷肥来增加系统的肥力，将减少生物复杂性的任何好处。我们发现土壤生物并不总是有益于植物新芽生物量，但是细菌，原生动物，线虫，菌根，鞘翅目昆虫和earth的作用及其相互作用对植物生物量的影响（正向或负向）取决于植物的生物量。其他社区成员的存在，P级状态和时间。这些发现对将地下生物多样性与地上植物生产力联系起来的现有框架提出了质疑。我们建议您进行进一步的实验工作，以控制土地利用，磷的状况以及土壤生物成分和复杂性。在进行此类工作之前，应进行将来的系统评估，以务实地为植物P需求，土地利用和生态系统服务提供更为有针对性的生物管理信息。为了使这种类型的进一步荟萃分析，我们建议习惯性地包括足够的实验细节和数据，作为发布的先决条件和一种利用增加的在线发布空间的有用方法。