Soil inoculum identity and rate jointly steer microbiomes and plant communities in the field

Inoculation with soil from different ecosystems can alter plant and soil communities, aiding degraded ecosystem restoration. This three-year field experiment used two grassland soil inocula (meadow steppe and upland meadow) at three inoculation rates to investigate their impact on soil microbiome, nematodes, and plant communities. Results showed that soil inoculum identity and amount significantly steered soil and plant communities, with higher inoculum leading to stronger effects. Upland meadow soil introduced more central genera in biotic networks, creating more complex networks than meadow steppe soil. This highlights the importance of donor soil origin and quantity in biodiversity and ecosystem function restoration.

Xu Han, Yingbin Li, Yuhui Li, Xiaofang Du, Bing Li, Qi Li, T. Martijn Bezemer