Plant functional diversity regulates the composition and diversity of soil microbial communities in temperate grasslands of northern China

Plant communities can influence the structure of soil microbial
communities by affecting the quality and quantity of plant-derived
resources available to soil microorganisms. However, the specific
mechanisms underlying these effects remain unclear. We sampled
soil bacterial and fungal communities, as well as plant biomass and
functional traits, across nine temperate grassland sites in northern
China. We explored how plant community characteristics, including biomass
and functional diversity along conservation and collaboration gradients,
shape the growth strategies, diversity, and composition of soil microbial
communities. Our results revealed a coupling of strategies
between plant and soil fungal communities, where plant communities
dominated by ‘fast’ or ‘do-it-yourself’ strategy species were associated
with soil fungal communities dominated by copiotrophic taxa following
similar ‘fast’ strategies. Soil fungal richness was positively influenced
by functional divergence along the collaboration gradient, primarily
through increased biomass. Plant functional composition on the
conservation gradient had a stronger influence on the composition of soil
fungal communities than on bacterial communities. These findings
underscore the importance of different aspects of plant functional
diversity, including functional divergence and community-weighted mean
associated with plant resource acquisition strategies, in shaping soil
microbial communities and provide a novel perspective for exploring
plant-microbe interactions at the community level.