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）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取决于植物性状，也不清楚植物-土壤反馈是否会驱动本地植物多样性。本研究从物种极度丰富的澳大利亚灌丛中培育了16种共存植物，这些植物的养分获取策略各不相同，并将其分别暴露于取自自身植株下方或其他植物下方的土壤生物群落中。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（ectomycorrhizal plants）表现为正反馈，固氮植物（nitrogen-fixing plants）与非菌根植物（nonmycorrhizal plants）则表现为负反馈。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型灌丛所特有的高分类学与功能多样性。本研究明确将养分获取策略作为关键性状，阐释了植物对土壤生物群落的差异化响应如何促进本地植物多样性。