Provenance Legacies Override Species Effects in Shaping Oak Rhizosphere Microbiomes and Metabolomes

Given the increasing threat of drought extremes driven by climate change, selecting drought-tolerant trees is crucial for future forest resilience. However, since the role of tree-microbial associations for this key trait remains largely unclear, the goal of this study was to investigate how geographic origin, tree species (Quercus robur and Q. petraea), and intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) shape the rhizosphere microbiome and metabolome of oaks. The relevance of these findings lies in emphasizing the need for provenance-aware selection and microbiome-informed assisted migration as strategies to increase forest drought resilience under global climate change.

鉴于气候变化驱动下极端干旱威胁日益加剧，筛选耐旱树种对维系未来森林生态系统的韧性至关重要。然而，树木-微生物共生关系对这一关键耐旱性状的作用仍不甚明晰，因此本研究旨在探究地理起源、供试树种（夏栎（Quercus robur）与无梗花栎（Q. petraea））以及内在水分利用效率（intrinsic water-use efficiency，简称iWUE）如何塑造栎树的根际微生物组（rhizosphere microbiome）与代谢组（metabolome）。本研究结果的意义在于，强调了在全球气候变化背景下，需采用种源导向的树种筛选与基于微生物组信息的辅助迁移策略，以提升森林应对干旱的韧性。