Goossens Elias P, Minden Vanessa, Van Poucke Flor, Olde Venterink Harry
Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
NPJ Biodivers. 2023 Dec 21;2(1):27. doi: 10.1038/s44185-023-00032-4.
Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) are suggested to be major drivers of plant species coexistence and exotic invasions in natural plant communities, where species with more positive PSFs are thought to be more abundant in communities. Most evidence for this comes from mesocosm experiments with single species, but whether the results are transposable to diverse plant communities is mostly not verified and remains debated. We performed a combined monoculture and community experiment to test whether PSFs in monocultures predict PSFs in communities, and to infer the role of PSFs in invasive plant success. We found that (1) PSFs from monocultures were poor predictors for PSFs in plant communities, (2) competitive strength of invasive species did not consistently depend on PSF, and (3) dominant species experienced a significantly stronger negative PSFs than non-dominant species when grown in community. Hence, PSFs of plant species in monocultures seem less predictive for their abundance in plant communities or for invasibility than previously assumed. Nevertheless, PSF-and particularly negative PSF-seems indeed a major driver of plant species coexistence, with a strong species-specific pathogenic effect on dominant plants facilitating the persistence of rare species.
植物-土壤反馈（PSFs）被认为是自然植物群落中植物物种共存和外来物种入侵的主要驱动因素，在这些群落中，具有更积极PSFs的物种被认为在群落中更为丰富。对此的大多数证据来自单一物种的中宇宙实验，但这些结果是否可转换到多样的植物群落中大多未得到验证，仍存在争议。我们进行了一项单作和群落相结合的实验，以测试单作中的PSFs是否能预测群落中的PSFs，并推断PSFs在入侵植物成功中的作用。我们发现：（1）单作中的PSFs对植物群落中的PSFs预测能力较差；（2）入侵物种的竞争强度并不始终依赖于PSF；（3）优势物种在群落中生长时，经历的负向PSFs比非优势物种显著更强。因此，单作中植物物种的PSFs对其在植物群落中的丰度或入侵性的预测能力似乎比之前假设的要低。尽管如此，PSF——尤其是负向PSF——似乎确实是植物物种共存的主要驱动因素，对优势植物具有强烈的物种特异性致病效应，这有利于稀有物种的持续存在。
