Soil legacy effects of plants and drought on aboveground insects in native and range-expanding plant communities

TY - JOUR

T1 - Soil legacy effects of plants and drought on aboveground insects in native and range-expanding plant communities

AU - Li, Keli

AU - Veen, G. F.

AU - ten Hooven, Freddy C.

AU - Harvey, Jeffrey A.

AU - van der Putten, Wim H.

N1 - Data archiving: dryad, zenodo

PY - 2023/1

Y1 - 2023/1

N2 - Soils contain biotic and abiotic legacies of previous conditions that may influence plant community biomass and associated aboveground biodiversity. However, little is known about the relative strengths and interactions of the various belowground legacies on aboveground plant–insect interactions. We used an outdoor mesocosm experiment to investigate the belowground legacy effects of range-expanding versus native plants, extreme drought and their interactions on plants, aphids and pollinators. We show that plant biomass was influenced more strongly by the previous plant community than by the previous summer drought. Plant communities consisted of four congeneric pairs of natives and range expanders, and their responses were not unanimous. Legacy effects affected the abundance of aphids more strongly than pollinators. We conclude that legacies can be contained as soil ‘memories’ that influence aboveground plant community interactions in the next growing season. These soil-borne ‘memories’ can be altered by climate warming-induced plant range shifts and extreme drought.

AB - Soils contain biotic and abiotic legacies of previous conditions that may influence plant community biomass and associated aboveground biodiversity. However, little is known about the relative strengths and interactions of the various belowground legacies on aboveground plant–insect interactions. We used an outdoor mesocosm experiment to investigate the belowground legacy effects of range-expanding versus native plants, extreme drought and their interactions on plants, aphids and pollinators. We show that plant biomass was influenced more strongly by the previous plant community than by the previous summer drought. Plant communities consisted of four congeneric pairs of natives and range expanders, and their responses were not unanimous. Legacy effects affected the abundance of aphids more strongly than pollinators. We conclude that legacies can be contained as soil ‘memories’ that influence aboveground plant community interactions in the next growing season. These soil-borne ‘memories’ can be altered by climate warming-induced plant range shifts and extreme drought.

KW - aboveground–belowground interactions

KW - climate change

KW - drought

KW - herbivores

KW - plant–soil feedback

KW - pollinators

KW - range-expansion

KW - soil legacy effect

KW - Insecta

KW - Biomass

KW - Plants

KW - Animals

KW - Droughts

KW - Ecosystem

KW - Soil

KW - Aphids

U2 - 10.1111/ele.14129

DO - 10.1111/ele.14129

M3 - Article

C2 - 36414536

AN - SCOPUS:85142444013

SN - 1461-023X

VL - 26

SP - 37

EP - 52

JO - Ecology Letters

JF - Ecology Letters

IS - 1

ER -