TY - JOUR

T1 - Soil chemical legacies trigger species-specific and context-dependent root responses in later arriving plants

AU - Delory, Benjamin M.

AU - Schempp, Hannes

AU - Spachmann, Sina Maria

AU - Störzer, Laura

AU - van Dam, Nicole M.

AU - Temperton, Vicky M.

AU - Weinhold, Alexander

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank Dr. Thomas Niemeyer for his great technical support, as well as Lukas van Treeck, Anaïs Verstraeten and Ksenia Cherepanova for their invaluable help in measuring root traits. This research project greatly benefited from the online course ‘Image analysis methods for biologists’ taught by Tony Pridmore, Andrew French, Michael Pound and Amy Lowe (University of Nottingham, UK). The plant illustrations used in this paper were made by Carolina Levicek ( www.carolinalevicek.com ). The authors thank Amit Kumar and Inés Alonso‐Crespo for their constructive comments on the manuscript. For this project, B.M.D. was supported by a research start‐up grant (Forschungsanschubfinanzierung) from Leuphana University Lüneburg (Germany). N.M.V.D. and A.W. gratefully acknowledge the German Research Foundation for funding the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig (DFG‐FZT 118‐202548816). Funding Information: The authors thank Dr. Thomas Niemeyer for his great technical support, as well as Lukas van Treeck, Ana?s Verstraeten and Ksenia Cherepanova for their invaluable help in measuring root traits. This research project greatly benefited from the online course ?Image analysis methods for biologists? taught by Tony Pridmore, Andrew French, Michael Pound and Amy Lowe (University of Nottingham, UK). The plant illustrations used in this paper were made by Carolina Levicek (www.carolinalevicek.com). The authors thank Amit Kumar and In?s Alonso-Crespo for their constructive comments on the manuscript. For this project, B.M.D. was supported by a research start-up grant (Forschungsanschubfinanzierung) from Leuphana University L?neburg (Germany). N.M.V.D. and A.W. gratefully acknowledge the German Research Foundation for funding the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig (DFG-FZT 118-202548816). Open Access funding enabled and organized by ProjektDEAL. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Plant, Cell & Environment published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2021/4

Y1 - 2021/4

N2 - Soil legacies play an important role for the creation of priority effects. However, we still poorly understand to what extent the metabolome found in the soil solution of a plant community is conditioned by its species composition and whether soil chemical legacies affect subsequent species during assembly. To test these hypotheses, we collected soil solutions from forb or grass communities and evaluated how the metabolome of these soil solutions affected the growth, biomass allocation and functional traits of a forb (Dianthus deltoides) and a grass species (Festuca rubra). Results showed that the metabolomes found in the soil solutions of forb and grass communities differed in composition and chemical diversity. While soil chemical legacies did not have any effect on F. rubra, root foraging by D. deltoides decreased when plants received the soil solution from a grass or a forb community. Structural equation modelling showed that reduced soil exploration by D. deltoides arose via either a root growth‐dependent pathway (forb metabolome) or a root trait‐dependent pathway (grass metabolome). Reduced root foraging was not connected to a decrease in total N uptake. Our findings reveal that soil chemical legacies can create belowground priority effects by affecting root foraging in later arriving plants.

AB - Soil legacies play an important role for the creation of priority effects. However, we still poorly understand to what extent the metabolome found in the soil solution of a plant community is conditioned by its species composition and whether soil chemical legacies affect subsequent species during assembly. To test these hypotheses, we collected soil solutions from forb or grass communities and evaluated how the metabolome of these soil solutions affected the growth, biomass allocation and functional traits of a forb (Dianthus deltoides) and a grass species (Festuca rubra). Results showed that the metabolomes found in the soil solutions of forb and grass communities differed in composition and chemical diversity. While soil chemical legacies did not have any effect on F. rubra, root foraging by D. deltoides decreased when plants received the soil solution from a grass or a forb community. Structural equation modelling showed that reduced soil exploration by D. deltoides arose via either a root growth‐dependent pathway (forb metabolome) or a root trait‐dependent pathway (grass metabolome). Reduced root foraging was not connected to a decrease in total N uptake. Our findings reveal that soil chemical legacies can create belowground priority effects by affecting root foraging in later arriving plants.

KW - niche modification

KW - plant-soil interactions

KW - priority effect mechanism

KW - root exudates

KW - root traits

KW - untargeted metabolomics

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - Biology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100318220&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/pce.13999

DO - 10.1111/pce.13999

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 33455010

VL - 44

SP - 1215

EP - 1230

JO - Plant, Cell and Environment

JF - Plant, Cell and Environment

SN - 0140-7791

IS - 4

ER -