Data from: Species abundance fluctuations over 31 years are associated with plant-soil feedback in a species-rich mountain meadow

1. Increasing evidence suggest that plant-soil interactions play an
essential role in plant community assembly processes. Empirical
investigations show that plant species abundance in the field is often
related to plant-soil biota interactions, however, the direction of these
relations have yielded inconsistent results. 2. We combined unique 31-year
long field data on species abundances from a species-rich mountain meadow
with single time point plant-soil feedback greenhouse experiments of 24
co-occurring plant species. We tested whether these relations were dynamic
in time, whether coupled increases and decreases in abundance between
years were related to plant-soil feedback and whether these changes were
underlain by years in which manuring was applied. 3. The prevailingly
negative relationship between plant-soil feedback and plant relative
abundance in the field was significantly time-dependent, which may
reconcile the contrasting results in literature. Furthermore, significant
coupled oscillations appeared between species relative abundance changes
and plant-soil feedback, which were likely moderated by years in which
manuring was applied. Our results are consistent with the notion that the
more abundant species are stabilised by negative plant-soil feedback, and
the less abundant species co-vary with the fluctuations of these more
competitive species. 4. Synthesis: Our results project plant-soil feedback
as an important regulatory mechanism in plant communities, operating in
conjunction with a species’ competitive ability and soil nutrient
availability. We suggest that negative feedback is particularly prominent
in more abundant plant species that profit from more readily available
soil nutrients than less abundant species with positive feedback. Negative
plant-soil feedback may thus prevent more abundant plant species from
outcompeting less abundant plant species, facilitating stable species
co-existence.