Plant life history traits rather than soil legacies determine colonisation of soil patches in a multi-species grassland

Interactions between plants and soil biota are increasingly shown to play critical roles in plant species co-existence processes. Plant species co-existence is thought to be promoted via biotic legacies that plant species leave behind in the soil after a plant disappears. These soil legacies are hypothesised to supress colonisation success when the preceding plant is of the same species, that is, when a plant species encounters its own, species-specific soil antagonists.
However, colonisation of vacant spots in plant communities is in the first place determined by the ability of plants to reach such vacant locations. We currently lack an understanding of the explicit role of soil legacy effects and their relative contribution to colonisation processes in plant communities consisting of plant species inherently differing in colonisation ability.
In experimental, outdoor plant communities consisting of eight grassland species, we tested the effect of five differently conditioned soil patc...