Data from: Plant-soil feedback and the maintenance of diversity in Mediterranean-climate shrublands

Soil biota influence plant performance through plant-soil feedback, but it is unclear whether the strength of such feedback depends on plant traits and whether plant-soil feedback drives local plant diversity. We grew 16 co-occurring plant species with contrasting nutrient-acquisition strategies from hyperdiverse Australian shrublands and exposed them to soil biota from under their own or other plant species. Plant responses to soil biota varied according to their nutrient-acquisition strategy, including positive feedback for ectomycorrhizal plants and negative feedback for nitrogen-fixing and nonmycorrhizal plants. Simulations revealed that such strategy-dependent feedback is sufficient to maintain the high taxonomic and functional diversity characterizing these Mediterranean-climate shrublands. Our study identifies nutrient-acquisition strategy as a key trait explaining how different plant responses to soil biota promote local plant diversity.土壤生物群落（soil biota）可通过植物-土壤反馈（plant-soil feedback）影响植物生长表现，但目前尚不清楚这类反馈的强度是否依赖于植物功能性状，亦不清楚植物-土壤反馈是否能够驱动局域植物多样性。本研究选取了16种来自物种高度丰富的澳大利亚灌丛的共存植物，这些植物具有截然不同的养分获取策略，并将其暴露于取自其自身或其他植物冠幅下的土壤生物群落中。植物对土壤生物群落的响应随其养分获取策略而异：外生菌根植物呈现正反馈，固氮植物与非菌根植物则呈现负反馈。模拟实验表明，这种依赖于养分获取策略的反馈足以维持这些地中海气候灌丛所特有的高分类多样性与功能多样性。本研究明确了养分获取策略作为关键功能性状，阐释了植物对土壤生物群落的差异化响应如何促进局域植物多样性。