TY - JOUR A1 - Werger, Luise A1 - Bergmann, Joana A1 - Weber, Ewald A1 - Heinze, Johannes T1 - Wind intensity affects fine root morphological traits with consequences for plant-soil feedback effects JF - Annals of Botany Plants N2 - Wind influences the development, architecture and morphology of plant roots and may modify subsequent interactions between plants and soil (plant–soil feedbacks—PSFs). However, information on wind effects on fine root morphology is scarce and the extent to which wind changes plant–soil interactions remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated the effects of two wind intensity levels by manipulating surrounding vegetation height in a grassland PSF field experiment. We grew four common plant species (two grasses and two non-leguminous forbs) with soil biota either previously conditioned by these or other species and tested the effect of wind on root:shoot ratio, fine root morphological traits as well as the outcome for PSFs. Wind intensity did not affect biomass allocation (i.e. root:shoot ratio) in any species. However, fine-root morphology of all species changed under high wind intensity. High wind intensity increased specific root length and surface area and decreased root tissue density, especially in the two grasses. Similarly, the direction of PSFs changed under high wind intensity in all four species, but differences in biomass production on the different soils between high and low wind intensity were marginal and most pronounced when comparing grasses with forbs. Because soils did not differ in plant-available nor total nutrient content, the results suggest that wind-induced changes in root morphology have the potential to influence plant–soil interactions. Linking wind-induced changes in fine-root morphology to effects on PSF improves our understanding of plant–soil interactions under changing environmental conditions. KW - Wind KW - root traits KW - root morphology KW - specific root length KW - plant–soil feedback Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plaa050 SN - 2041-2851 VL - 12 IS - 5 PB - Oxford University Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinze, Johannes A1 - Bergmann, Joana A1 - Rillig, Matthias C. A1 - Joshi, Jasmin Radha T1 - Negative biotic soil-effects enhance biodiversity by restricting potentially dominant plant species in grasslands JF - Perspectives in plant ecology, evolution and systematics N2 - Interactions between soil microorganisms and plants can play a vital role for plant fitness and therefore also for plant community composition and biodiversity. However, little is known about how biotic plant soil interactions influence the local dominance and abundance of plant species and whether specific taxonomic or functional groups of plants are differentially affected by such biotic soil-effects. In two greenhouse experiments, we tested the biotic soil-effects of 33 grassland species differing in individual size and local abundance. We hypothesized that large plants that are not locally dominant (despite their size-related competitive advantage enabling them to potentially outshade competitors) are most strongly limited by negative biotic soil-effects. We sampled soils at the opposite ends of a gradient in land-use intensity in temperate grasslands to account for putative modulating effects of land-use intensity on biotic soil-effects. As hypothesized, large, but non-dominant species (especially grasses) experienced more negative biotic soil-effects compared with small and abundant plant species. Land-use intensity had contrasting effects on grasses and herbs resulting in more negative biotic soil-effects for grasses in less intensively managed grasslands. We conclude that biotic soil-effects contribute to the control of potentially dominant plants and hence enable species coexistence and biodiversity especially in species-rich less intensively managed grasslands. KW - Coexistence mechanisms KW - Plant soil feedbacks KW - Individual size KW - Local plant-abundance KW - Grassland diversity KW - Land-use intensity Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2015.03.002 SN - 1433-8319 VL - 17 IS - 3 SP - 227 EP - 235 PB - Elsevier CY - Jena ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bergmann, Joana A1 - Verbruggen, Erik A1 - Heinze, Johannes A1 - Xiang, Dan A1 - Chen, Baodong A1 - Joshi, Jasmin Radha A1 - Rillig, Matthias C. T1 - The interplay between soil structure, roots, and microbiota as a determinant of plant-soil feedback JF - Ecology and evolution N2 - Plant-soil feedback (PSF) can influence plant community structure via changes in the soil microbiome. However, how these feedbacks depend on the soil environment remains poorly understood. We hypothesized that disintegrating a naturally aggregated soil may influence the outcome of PSF by affecting microbial communities. Furthermore, we expected plants to differentially interact with soil structure and the microbial communities due to varying root morphology. We carried out a feedback experiment with nine plant species (five forbs and four grasses) where the training phase consisted of aggregated versus disintegrated soil. In the feedback phase, a uniform soil was inoculated in a fully factorial design with soil washings from conspecific- versus heterospecific-trained soil that had been either disintegrated or aggregated. This way, the effects of prior soil structure on plant performance in terms of biomass production and allocation were examined. In the training phase, soil structure did not affect plant biomass. But on disintegrated soil, plants with lower specific root length (SRL) allocated more biomass aboveground. PSF in the feedback phase was negative overall. With training on disintegrated soil, conspecific feedback was positively correlated with SRL and significantly differed between grasses and forbs. Plants with higher SRL were likely able to easily explore the disintegrated soil with smaller pores, while plants with lower SRL invested in belowground biomass for soil exploration and seemed to be more susceptible to fungal pathogens. This suggests that plants with low SRL could be more limited by PSF on disintegrated soils of early successional stages. This study is the first to examine the influence of soil structure on PSF. Our results suggest that soil structure determines the outcome of PSF mediated by SRL. We recommend to further explore the effects of soil structure and propose to include root performance when working with PSF. KW - arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi KW - biomass allocation KW - plant functional traits KW - plant-soil (belowground) interactions KW - soil aggregation KW - specific root length KW - succession KW - water-stable aggregates Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2456 SN - 2045-7758 VL - 6 SP - 7633 EP - 7644 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER -