Data from: Fire effects on soil biota alter the strength and direction of plant-soil feedbacks between Schizachyrium scoparium (Michx.) Nash and Rudbeckia hirta L.

Background and aim: Plant soil feedbacks (PSF) are reciprocal mechanisms
through which plants modify soil biota and affect future plant
growth.  When scaled up to the community level, PSFs are
important determinants of above- and belowground community dynamics that
influence long-term successional trajectories.  Despite over
three decades of ecological PSF research, we have a poor understanding of
how common environmental processes like fire influence the strength and
direction of PSFs.  Method: In this work we evaluated how fire
effects on Schizachyrium scoparium and Rudbeckia hirta trained soil biota
influenced feedbacks on plant growth.  We tested this by
experimentally manipulating fires and evaluating plant growth responses to
burned and unburned inter- and intraspecific soil biota
treatments.  Result: Fire effects on inocula neutralized negative
feedbacks in S. scoparium, and caused negative feedbacks in R.
hirta.  This shows that environmental disturbance like fire can
alter the strength and direction of PSFs in ways that potentially modify
plant growth, plant fuel loads, and community dynamics. Conclusion: That
fire can alter the strength and direction of PSFs on plant growth suggests
that fire effects on soil related processes contribute to plant community
assembly and fire-fuel dynamics in fire recurrent grassland and savanna
ecosystems.  Further, this study shows that fire effects on PSFs
vary between plant species, and may contribute to the dominance of C4
grasses in pyrophilic ecosystems.