Soil legacy effects and plant—soil feedback contribution to secondary succession processes

Abstract

Secondary succession is the process by which a community develops into a climax community over time. However, knowledge on the mechanisms, relating to soil legacy effects (soil chemistry and enzyme activity) and plant—soil feedback (PSF), driving community succession remains limited. In this work, we examined the PSF associated with three succession stage species through a 2-year greenhouse experiment. Setaria viridis, Stipa bungeana, and Bothriochloa ischemum were selected to represent dominant and representative early-, mid-, and late-successional stage species, respectively, of semiarid grasslands on the Loess Plateau. In response to the different soil origin, the shoot biomass of early-, mid-, and late-species were all higher when grown in their own soil than in other species’ soils, which indicated that the PSF of three species were positive. Over two growth periods, the early-species experienced a negative PSF, but the mid- and late-species experienced negative, neutral and positive PSF in the soil of early-, mid- and late-species, respectively. Our study demonstrates that soil legacy effects and PSF have a significant impact on community succession processes.