Data from: 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 patches on plant species colonisation success
over three consecutive growing seasons. We found that colonisation success
was largely determined by the species’ reproductive strategy, lateral
spread and growth rate, and not by the plant species that conditioned the
soil patch. Fast spreading, clonal plant species reached the soil patches
first and initially attained the highest biomass inside the patch. One
year later, slower spreading plant species colonised the patch via
seedlings. Species with intrinsically high growth rates attained the
highest biomass, decreasing biomass of the initial colonisers. While
subtle differences between conditioned soil patches did occur, these were
not strong enough to overcome the inherent differences in colonisation
ability between the various plant species. Synthesis: Our results reject
the hypothesis that colonisation of vacant soil patches in plant
communities is strongly affected by the legacy that is left behind by the
preceding plant species. Instead, plant species life history strategy
plays a prominent role, driving sequential plant species replacements.
Based on our results and recent accounts in literature we present a
conceptual model for local cyclic dynamics in grassland communities, where
soil legacy plays a role in affecting the performance of established plant
species rather than colonisation of vacant patches.