Alpine plant seed microbiomes, germination, and plant-soil feedbacks, Niwot Ridge and Green Lakes Valley, 2018.

Seed and soil microbiomes strongly affect plant performance, and these effects can scale-up to influence plant community structure. However, seed and soil microbial community composition are variable across landscapes, and different microbial communities can differentially influence multiple plant metrics (biomass, germination rate), and community stabilizing mechanisms. We measured how microbiomes inside seeds and in soils varied among alpine plant species and communities that differed in plant species richness and density. Across 10 common alpine plant species, we found a total of 318 bacterial and 128 fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) associated with seeds, with fungal richness affected by plant species identity more than sampling location. However, seed microbes had only marginally significant effects on plant germination success and timing. In contrast, soil microbes associated with two different plant species had significant effects on plant biomass, and their effect depended both on the plant species and the location the soils were sampled from.

种子与土壤微生物组（microbiome）可显著影响植物生长表现，且该影响可进一步扩展至调控植物群落结构。然而，种子与土壤微生物群落组成在不同景观尺度下存在显著变异，且不同微生物群落可对多项植物性状指标（生物量、发芽率）以及群落稳定机制产生差异化影响。本研究针对植物物种丰富度与密度存在差异的高山植物物种及群落，探究了种子内部与土壤中的微生物组的变异规律。我们在10种常见高山植物中共检测到与种子相关的细菌操作分类单元（OTU，operational taxonomic unit）318个、真菌操作分类单元128个，其中真菌丰富度受植物物种属性的影响程度高于采样地点。不过，种子微生物仅对植物的萌发成功率与萌发时间产生边际显著的影响。与之形成鲜明对比的是，与两种不同植物物种相关联的土壤微生物可对植物生物量产生显著影响，且该影响同时取决于植物物种本身与土壤采样地点。