Soil legacy effects of plants and drought on aboveground insects in native and range-expanding plant communities
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 20, 2025

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning
Published on: March 21, 2025
Keli Li1,2, G F Ciska Veen1, Freddy C Ten Hooven1
1Department of Terrestrial Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Abstract:
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.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Responses to Drought and Flooding
Ecological Succession
The Roles of Bacteria and Fungi in Plant Nutrition
The Soil Ecosystem
Threats to Biodiversity
Hypothesis: Accept or Fail to Reject?
There are two ways to indicate that the null hypothesis is not rejected. 'Accept' the null...

