Soil remembers but not too much: plant-soil feedback legacies over two generations of plants

In this study, we aimed to investigate the importance of plant-soil feedback in multi-species grassland communities. Specifically, we asked whether (i) plant-soil feedback of a dominant plant species detected under classical experimental conditions is the same as the effect of this dominant detected in a species rich herbaceous community, and (ii) the specific legacy generated by a plant species persists in the soil or if it is masked by the legacy of subsequently growing plant species. Additionally, we aimed to peek into the black box of soil feedbacks and asked whether (iii) the individual components (changes in soil chemical properties and composition of microbial communities) change in their persistency in the soil.

本研究旨在探究植物-土壤反馈（plant-soil feedback）在多物种草地群落中的重要性。具体而言，我们首先探讨了两个问题：其一，在经典实验条件下测得的优势植物物种的植物-土壤反馈效应，与其在物种丰富的草本群落中测得的该优势物种的效应是否一致？其二，某一植物物种所产生的特异性土壤遗留效应，是会持续留存于土壤中，还是会被后续生长的植物物种所产生的土壤遗留效应所掩盖？此外，本研究还试图揭开土壤反馈的黑箱，进一步探究第三个问题：土壤反馈的各个组分（土壤化学性质变化与微生物群落组成变化）在土壤中的留存持久性是否存在差异。