Plant-soil feedback drives the nursing effect on Sitka spruce

The productivity of economically valuable focal trees in mixtures is often improved by inclusion of lower- value nursing species, but the mechanisms underpinning such effects are poorly resolved. This gap in understanding limits the capacity to develop efficient planting strategies for forests and woodlands to contribute to net-zero and other critical ecosystem functions.
Here, we undertook a plant-soil feedback experiment to test the hypothesis that feedback effects improve the biomass of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr) in soil conditioned by monocultures of heterospecific nurse species, and a mixture comprising Sitka spruce and heterospecifics, compared to soil conditioned by only Sitka spruce.
Sitka spruce saplings had greater biomass in soil conditioned by Scots pine monocultures (Pinus sylvestris L.) and the mixture compared to their own soil or soil conditioned by silver birch (Betula pendula Roth). Statistical models showed that colonisation of ectomycorrhizal fungi ..., , , # Plant-soil feedback drives the nursing effect on Sitka spruce

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4tmpg4fmh](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4tmpg4fmh)

## Description of the data and file structure

Author: Yichen Zhou, University of Manchester

Contact: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Date:2024/11/13

Contains material related to the paper:

Plant-soil feedback drives the ‘nursing effect’ on Sitka spruce.

Authors: Yichen Zhou, Tingting Tao, Filipa cox, David Johnson

Description:

This README file describes the model code associated with the above publication. All unites and methods are described in the publication.

### Files and variables

#### File: Zhou\_et.al-data.xlsx

**Description:** We have compiled all the data into “Zhou et.al-data”, which contains different sheets, including \"Plant properties“ which includes the plant properties after the feedback phase, ”Condition soil“ which includes the soil properties after the conditioning phase, \"PSF\" which ...