Microbial community dynamics in the soil-root continuum are linked with plant species turnover during secondary succession

Journal Article · Wed Jan 29 00:00:00 UTC 2025 · ISME Communications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycaf012 · OSTI ID:2564861

Yan, Weiming ^[1]; Yuan, Mengting Maggie ^[2]; Wang, Shi ^[3]; Sorensen, Patrick O. ^[3]; Wen, Tao ^[4]; Xu, Yuting ^[5]; Wang, Honglei ^[1]; Jiao, Shuo ^[1]; Chen, Ji ^[6]; Shangguan, Zhouping ^[1]; Deng, Lei ^[1]; Li, Ziyan ^[1]; Zhong, Yangquanwei ^[5]

---

1. Northwest A&F University, Yangling (China)
2. University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI (United States)
3. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
4. Nanjing Agricultural University (China)
5. Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shenzhen (China)
6. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Xi'an (China)

Grazing exclusion and land abandonment are commonly adopted to restore degraded ecosystems in semiarid and arid regions worldwide. However, the temporal variation in the soil- versus root-associated microbiome over plant species turnover during secondary succession has rarely been quantified. Using the chronosequence restored from fenced grassland and abandoned farmlands on the Loess Plateau of China, we characterized the dynamics of the soil- and root-associated microbiome of host plant with different dominance statuses during secondary succession from 0 to 40 years. Our results revealed that the root microhabitat, the host plant and their interactions were the main contributors to the bacterial community shift (R² = 15.5%, 8.1%, and 22.3%, respectively), and plant interspecies replacement had a greater effect on the shift in the root-associated microbial community than intraspecies replacement did during succession. The root-associated bacterial community of pioneer plants was particularly responsive to succession, especially the endosphere community. Endosphere microbial diversity was positively correlated with host plant coverage change, and the diversity and abundance of taxon recruitment into the endosphere of pioneer plants from the surrounding environment decreased as succession progressed. The community assembly processes also indicated that the endosphere microbiota are strongly selected in younger host plants, whereas stochastic processes dominate in aged host plants. Our study provides evidence of the unique response of the root-associated microbiome to the replacement of plant species during secondary succession, and the function of endosphere microbes should be considered when studying plant–microbe feedback.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation; National Key Research & Development Program of China; Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Biological Systems Science (BSS)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 2564861
• Journal Information: ISME Communications, Journal Name: ISME Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 5; ISSN 2730-6151
• Publisher: Springer NatureCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English