Increased microbial complexity and stability in rhizosphere soil: A key factor for plant resilience during mining...

The network-based complexity and stability of the microbial community are critical for host fitness under disturbance, but there are still gaps in our understanding of whether there are general rules governing this relationship. Despite evidence that the rhizosphere microbiome plays an important role in host fitness, it is unclear whether rhizosphere microbial complexity and stability influence host plant fitness under scenarios of environmental disturbance. Here, we investigated the effects of mining disturbance on the complexity and stability of the rhizosphere microbiome and its potential role in plant fitness. Our findings demonstrated that, compared with mildly disturbed mining sites, severely disturbed mining sites exhibited significantly increased complexity and stability indices of the rhizosphere microbial community. Furthermore, we identified a positive feedback relationship between microbial complexity and stability and the functional potential of the microbial community, which ultimately benefits plant fitness. Our study provides empirical evidence that mining disturbance increases microbial complexity and stability, thereby increasing the resilience of host plants to environmental disturbance. Understanding microbially mediated tolerance to mining disturbance may improve our ability to predict and manage plant adaptability in changing environments.