Functional Diversity of Plant Communities Explains the Response of Soil Microbes to Plant Invasion Along a Successional Gradient

TY - JOUR

T1 - Functional Diversity of Plant Communities Explains the Response of Soil Microbes to Plant Invasion Along a Successional Gradient

AU - Liu, Siqiao

AU - Sepp, Siim Kaarel

AU - Ah-Peng, Claudine

AU - Paganeli, Bruno

AU - Püssa, Kersti

AU - Junaedi, Decky Indrawan

AU - Rodríguez-Alarcón, Slendy

AU - Olson, Mark E.

AU - Vasar, Martti

AU - Martínez, Oscar Zárate

AU - Koorem, Kadri

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2026 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2026/5/5

Y1 - 2026/5/5

N2 - Ecosystems worldwide face growing impacts from non-native species invasions. However, little is known about how soil microbial communities respond to the addition of non-native plants, and whether these responses differ along a successional gradient. To address these knowledge gaps, we collected soil samples, recorded plant species cover and measured the traits of the plant species in lava flow vegetation and lowland rainforest (representing early and late successional stages) on La Réunion Island. Our results show that non-native plant cover drives variation in plant species diversity, community composition, functional composition (community-weighted means of vegetative height and leaf area) and functional diversity (mean pairwise trait distance among species), with these effects being stronger in early than in late successional stage. Non-native plant cover did not affect the diversity or community composition of soil fungi and bacteria. Instead, the functional diversity of plant communities associated with non-native plant addition explained the variation in soil microbial community composition and co-occurrence network structure. These results suggest that while non-native plant cover is a good indicator of variation in plant community composition, the functional diversity of the plant community is more useful for describing shifts in soil microbial communities of invaded habitats along primary succession.

AB - Ecosystems worldwide face growing impacts from non-native species invasions. However, little is known about how soil microbial communities respond to the addition of non-native plants, and whether these responses differ along a successional gradient. To address these knowledge gaps, we collected soil samples, recorded plant species cover and measured the traits of the plant species in lava flow vegetation and lowland rainforest (representing early and late successional stages) on La Réunion Island. Our results show that non-native plant cover drives variation in plant species diversity, community composition, functional composition (community-weighted means of vegetative height and leaf area) and functional diversity (mean pairwise trait distance among species), with these effects being stronger in early than in late successional stage. Non-native plant cover did not affect the diversity or community composition of soil fungi and bacteria. Instead, the functional diversity of plant communities associated with non-native plant addition explained the variation in soil microbial community composition and co-occurrence network structure. These results suggest that while non-native plant cover is a good indicator of variation in plant community composition, the functional diversity of the plant community is more useful for describing shifts in soil microbial communities of invaded habitats along primary succession.

KW - alien plant species

KW - bacterial communities

KW - co-occurrence network

KW - fungal communities

KW - non-native plant species

KW - plant traits

KW - primary succession

U2 - 10.1111/pce.70585

DO - 10.1111/pce.70585

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105037721710

SN - 0140-7791

JO - Plant, Cell and Environment

JF - Plant, Cell and Environment

ER -