Abstract
AimsSoil food webs include multiple groups of organisms that each can favor or repress particular plant species in a plant community. This study explores how microbes and nematodes alter the temporal dynamics of specific plant species and functional groups (i.e. grasses and forbs) in mixed grassland communities.MethodsWe extracted communities of nematodes and microorganisms from natural grassland soil and inoculated them, separately and in combination, into containers filled with sterilized grassland soil to examine how these groups of soil organisms influence the compositional dynamics of a diverse grassland plant community consisting of 12 species.ResultsAddition of soil microorganisms altered the composition of the plant community by enhancing forb species and promoting evenness, but these effects took time to develop and became significant only 6 months after inoculation. Addition of soil nematodes showed faster effects and reduced plant community evenness via suppressing several subordinate plant species. The nematode community was dominated by root-feeding nematodes that were less abundant when microorganisms were present, indicating a potential inhibitory effect of microorganisms on plant-feeding nematodes.ConclusionsOur results show that soil microorganisms and nematodes may differ in the magnitude and direction of their effects on the compositional dynamics of plant communities in natural grasslands, and that these effects may operate at different timespans. This study highlights the complexity of plant-soil biotic interactions and the importance to explore these interactions at multiple temporal scales.
Highlights
Plants compete for nutrients, light and water, but many studies recognize that plant-plant interactions can be affected by soil biota (e.g. De Deyn et al 2003; Bezemer et al 2010; de Kroon et al 2012; Hendriks et al 2015; Teste et al 2017)
The soil community comprises a variety of groups that form antagonistic or mutualistic relations with different plant species, and as these interactions influence plant performance this can result in shifts in the relative abundances of the different plant species in mixed communities (Klironomos et al 2000; Hart et al 2003; De Deyn et al 2003)
The results revealed that species in the community differently responded to the inoculations of soil nematodes and/or microorganisms and that the community diverged over time
Summary
Plants compete for nutrients, light and water, but many studies recognize that plant-plant interactions can be affected by soil biota (e.g. De Deyn et al 2003; Bezemer et al 2010; de Kroon et al 2012; Hendriks et al 2015; Teste et al 2017). Other groups in the soil community, such as decomposers, can regulate levels of soil nutrients available for plants and this can mediate the performance of slow and fastgrowing plant species differently (Zak et al 2003; van der Heijden et al 2008). Fungal- and bacterial-feeding nematodes may affect plant species indirectly via grazing on fungi and bacteria that results in the release of nutrients locked in the microbes. These released nutrients can be taken up by the plants, and indirectly contribute to plant growth (de Ruiter et al 1993). It is evident that nematodes and plant species can intimately interact, but at the community level, the
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