European Journal of Soil Biology最新文献

{"title":"Assembly processes, ecological strategies, and functional potentials of abundant and rare microbial taxa in biological soil crusts from two habitats in arid ecosystems","authors":"Yansong Wang,&nbsp;Zengru Wang,&nbsp;Yubing Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103786","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103786","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Biological soil crusts (BSCs) cover approximately 40 % of arid and semi-arid lands and are pivotal for terrestrial biogeochemical cycling. Bacteria and fungi constitute the main active constituents of BSC microbial communities, with abundant and rare taxa playing distinct roles. We investigated differences in assembly processes, adaptive strategies, and functional potential between abundant and rare bacterial and fungal taxa across BSC developments in two distinct habitats—the nutrient-poor Tengger Desert and the relatively fertile Loess Plateau. Our results reveal that stochastic dispersal limitation chiefly dominates abundant and permanently rare bacterial taxa in both habitats. In contrast, homogeneous selection dominated transiently and conditionally rare taxa, while deterministic selection pressure was more pronounced in the Tengger Desert owing to its lower nutrient availability. The successional development of BSCs drives a shift from r-to K-strategies in both habitats, with this transition being particularly pronounced in the Tengger Desert. Rare bacterial taxa harbor functional gene repertoires disproportionate to their low relative abundances and thus make outsized contributions to biogeochemical cycling; moreover, their functional potential increases progressively throughout BSC development. Functional connectivity between abundant and rare taxa was strengthened under nutrient-poor conditions. Variation in soil organic carbon content and pH emerged as primary drivers of the assembly and functional patterns. These findings indicate that nutrient-limited conditions differentially alter assembly processes and functional potential of rare and abundant taxa, and that ecological strategies shift with succession in both habitats. Our study reveals how contrasting nutrient availabilities in two arid habitats drive microbial assembly dynamics, adaptive strategies, and functional differentiation throughout BSC successional development, offering theoretical guidance for studying microbial communities and functions in arid ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12057,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Biology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 103786"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145525781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Soil pH and organic phosphorus co-shape the diversity and assembly processes of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community in subtropical broadleaved forests","authors":"Rui Xu ,&nbsp;Zhucheng Yu ,&nbsp;Yang Liu ,&nbsp;Yidan Liu ,&nbsp;Xingcong Ma ,&nbsp;Xiaomin Ma ,&nbsp;Wenhao Jin ,&nbsp;Yongfu Li ,&nbsp;Junhui Chen ,&nbsp;Hua Qin","doi":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103785","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103785","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal represent a vital pathway for plant nutrient acquisition in soils, especially in nutrient-limited subtropical broadleaved forests where AM fungi extensively colonize roots. However, critical knowledge gaps persist regarding how soil phosphorus and nitrogen gradients (including organic and inorganic forms) influence the structure and assembly mechanisms of AM fungal communities in subtropical broadleaved forests. We conducted field sampling of <em>Schima superba</em> rhizosphere soils (typically AM tree species), analyzing the concentrations of key soil nutrient forms (e.g., available phosphorus, organic phosphorus, ammonium, nitrate) and the AM fungal community structure via high-throughput sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene. Correlation revealed that AM fungal biomarkers (NLFA 16:1ω5) increased with soil pH. AM fungal richness exhibited a significant quadratic relationship with soil organic phosphorus (OP) concentrations and was negatively correlated with the available phosphorus (AP) to OP ratio, suggesting that a higher proportion of readily available phosphorus suppresses AM fungal diversity. Community structure (indicated by NMDS1) was primarily influenced by total phosphorus (TP) concentrations and pH, while network complexity was significantly associated with AP and NH₄⁺-N. The assembly of AM fungal communities was dominated by deterministic processes, whose influence decreased with increasing soil OP and TP concentrations. Random forest analyses and structure equation modeling (SEM) demonstrated that the structure and assembly of AM fungal communities were jointly shaped by soil pH and P dynamic (especially OP and TP). Overall, these findings elucidate that soil pH and P forms (particularly OP) are pivotal factors governing the structure and assembly processes of AM fungal communities in subtropical broadleaved forests, advancing our understanding of AM fungal community variation in nutrient-poor environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12057,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Biology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 103785"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145473908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigation of the seasonal dynamics of grassland soil bacterivores in top- and subsoils","authors":"Verena Groß ,&nbsp;Mathilde Borg Dahl ,&nbsp;Jana Täumer ,&nbsp;Kenneth Dumack ,&nbsp;Haitao Wang ,&nbsp;Michael Bonkowski ,&nbsp;Tim Urich","doi":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103784","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103784","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bacterivorous micro- and macro-organisms are important functional guilds in the soil microbial food web, where their activities influence the community composition. Few studies to date have holistically considered the spatial and seasonal dynamics of such bacterivores in temperate grassland soils; studies of subsoil microbial food webs are particularly scarce. This represents a potential knowledge gap, as environmental conditions (e.g. season and soil depth) may affect prokaryotic and eukaryotic bacterivores differentially. Using a quantitative metatranscriptomic approach, we studied the abundance of SSU rRNA transcripts of bacterivorous bacteria, protists, and nematodes in two German grassland sites from top- and subsoils across seasons. The combined transcript abundance of all bacterivores was significantly reduced with depth. A reduction in the transcript predator-prey ratio was seen for bacterivorous protists, nematodes, and <em>Bdellovibrionota</em>. In contrast, facultative bacterivorous <em>Myxococcota</em> showed a consistently high transcript predator-prey ratio at both depths, suggesting that they dominate the bacterivore functional guild in subsoils. The transcript abundance of all bacterivores and their potential bacterial prey exhibited similar seasonal patterns at both depths. The predator-prey ratio showed bacterivore-specific seasonal and depth-dependent variations. Although this methodology has limitations, as transcript abundance does not directly reflect organism's abundance — our findings suggest a notable role for predatory bacteria as potential main consumers of bacterial biomass in subsoils. In general, increasing soil depth appears to influence the structure of the bacterivorous community, potentially reflected in a shift in the ratio of eukaryotic predators to bacterial prey.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12057,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Biology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 103784"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145473907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Linking microbial community assembly to β-diversity and soil respiration under canopy nitrogen addition and understory removal in a subtropical forest","authors":"Debao Li ,&nbsp;Yan Li ,&nbsp;Haibian Xu ,&nbsp;Jianping Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103783","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103783","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Biodiversity plays a crucial role in regulating ecosystem functions. However, the contribution of β-diversity to ecosystem functioning remains less well understood than that of α-diversity, especially in the context of global change. Here, we evaluated the impact of nitrogen addition and understory removal on the association between soil microbial β-diversity and soil respiration in a subtropical planted forest using a five-year factorial experiment. Four treatments were compared: a control, canopy nitrogen addition (2.5 g N m⁻² year⁻¹), understory removal, and nitrogen addition combined with understory removal. We found that both understory removal and nitrogen addition significantly altered the soil temperature, moisture, nutrient availability, and pH, leading to strong environmental filtering. This strengthened the role of deterministic processes (i.e., homogeneous selection) in bacterial community assembly. The dominance of homogeneous selection in community assembly reduced bacterial β-diversity. By contrast, nitrogen addition and understory removal did not impact soil fungal community assembly or β-diversity. In addition, soil bacterial β-diversity correlated positively with respiration, unlike fungal β-diversity, which showed no link. Our findings suggest that local-scale disturbances can disrupt bacterial-driven ecosystem processes in forest plantation. Furthermore, the presence of understory vegetation can at least partially mitigate the effects of nitrogen deposition on soil bacterial β-diversity and soil respiration. Therefore, the preservation of understory vegetation may sustain soil functional diversity in plantations experiencing high rates of nitrogen deposition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12057,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Biology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 103783"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145424537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Heterogeneous salinity and nitrogen in the root-zone influences soil water status, rhizosphere bacteria distributions and promotes tomato growth","authors":"Yuexiong Wang ,&nbsp;Zhenchang Wang ,&nbsp;Jinjing Liu ,&nbsp;Rangjian Qiu ,&nbsp;Cheng Hong ,&nbsp;Minghao Tian ,&nbsp;Kexin Chen ,&nbsp;Xiaoman Qiang","doi":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103781","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103781","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil texture heterogeneity together with agronomic practices like drip irrigation, furrow-bed seeding, and straw mulching often introduces abrupt changes in soil physical properties, causing uneven soil salinity (Sa) and nitrogen (N) distribution in the root-zone. While rhizosphere bacterial and plant responses to Sa or N heterogeneity have been widely investigated, N supply modes may alter root responses to heterogeneous Sa stress and simultaneously influence bacterial communities. To elucidate the coupled impacts of heterogeneous Sa and N on plant growth and rhizosphere bacteria as well as their relationships, two Sa distribution patterns (Sa1: 1/5 g kg⁻¹ NaCl on the low-/high-salinity sides; Sa2: 3/3 g kg⁻¹ NaCl) and three N supply modes (N1: 270/0 mg kg⁻¹ N; N2: 0/270 mg kg⁻¹ N; N3: 135/135 mg kg⁻¹ N) were implemented. Herein, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and co-occurrence network analysis revealed bacterial community characteristics and network topological features under different treatments. We found that compared to uniform Sa distribution, uneven distribution of Sa significantly increased root biomass and surface area on the low-salinity side, thereby facilitating compensatory uptake of water and nutrients and ultimately increasing tomato total biomass and N content. Besides, N supply modes altered plant root responses to Sa heterogeneity, with N2 and N3 tomatoes exhibiting greater total N content and biomass in plants than N1 under the Sa1 distribution. Compared to the Sa2N3 treatment, the Sa1N2 treatment increased the Chao1 index and enriched beneficial core rhizobacteria such as <em>Acidobacteriota</em>, enhancing potential cooperation among rare taxa. The above shifts were primarily driven by heterogeneous Sa, which altered soil water content, soil NO₃-N content, EC_1:5, and root distribution, thereby restructuring bacterial community composition and co-occurrence network patterns. The SEM model further indicated that variations in bacterial diversity (Chao1 index) reshaped functional profiles, thereby regulating N availability. Additionally, the Chao1 index exhibited significant positive relationships with tomato total biomass, particularly Chao1 index on the low-salinity side. This study highlights the importance of bacterial diversity of rare taxa as predictors for reflecting the coupling effect of heterogeneous salinity and nitrogen on plant growth, thereby deepening our understanding of the contribution of bacteria in plant responses to salinity-nitrogen heterogeneity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12057,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Biology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 103781"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145424536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Strip-intercropping of eight crop species shows limited within-field variation of soil bacterial communities","authors":"Joliese Teunissen ,&nbsp;Anne Kupczok ,&nbsp;Dirk F. van Apeldoorn ,&nbsp;Stefan Geisen","doi":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103782","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103782","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The current crop system needs to become more sustainable to halt the severe environmental impacts associated with intensive monocultures. Alternative agricultural methods, like intercropping, could increase sustainability by better utilizing the biological functions of the plant-soil ecosystem, particularly through plant-associated bacteria. Soil bacteria are key players in supplying many ecosystem functions and thus contribute to plant performance. The effect of intercropping on soil bacteria is a crucial but understudied part of integrating intercropping into the global agricultural system. Here we characterized the effect of intercropping on soil bacterial communities, by comparing intra-versus interspecific crop interactions within one organic strip-intercropping field. We determined the alpha diversity and community composition of soil bacteria across 8 crop species and 16 crop combinations. We found that bacterial alpha diversity was not affected by crop species or crop combination. In contrast, bacterial community composition was influenced by crop species, with certain crops such as parsnip, potato and celeriac shaping their associated bacterial community in both intra- and interspecific crop interactions. Minute differences (&lt;3 %) in soil moisture between crop species determined the strongest patterns observed here. Our findings highlight that crop diversification in the context of strip-intercropping does not always modulate soil bacterial communities under field conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12057,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Biology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 103782"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145424535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of low-density polyethylene microplastics on soil functions and microbial communities across soil depths","authors":"Jing Lu ,&nbsp;Yongfen Long ,&nbsp;Bin Hou ,&nbsp;Xuetao Guo ,&nbsp;Yu Zhang ,&nbsp;Hongjuan Bai ,&nbsp;Yating Jia","doi":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103778","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103778","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The ecological risks posed by soil microplastics contamination have become a growing global concern. Although the effect of microplastics on topsoil physicochemical properties and microbial composition have attracted attention, variations in enzyme activities and microbial succession across different soil depths remain unexplored. In this study, a two-month incubation experiment was conducted to assess the effects of low-density polyethylene microplastics (LDPE-MP) at varying concentrations (0.5 % and 2.0 %) on enzyme activities and microbial communities across vertical soil profiles. The results indicated that LDPE-MP improved the activities of urease and fluorescein diacetate esterase (FDAse) while inhibiting alkaline phosphatase (AKP), with these effects showing limited concentration-dependent patterns within the tested range. Furthermore, LDPE-MP decreased the species richness and α-diversity of bacterial community, primarily impacting non-dominant taxa rather than keystone species. This selective perturbation weakened microbial network interactions, diminishing community complexity and ecological stability. Notably, LDPE-MP stimulated the proliferation of cooperative metabolic genera (including denitrifying bacteria, carbon catabolism bacteria, and MP degradation bacteria), but competitively inhibited the growth of nitrogen-fixing and assimilation bacteria and phosphate conversion bacteria. These alterations might potentially alter nitrogen/carbon cycle and soil fertility. Interestingly, these effects are more pronounced in the topsoil than subsurface soil, indicating that their adverse impacts at the subsurface soil layer are mitigated. In addition, synergistic relationships were observed between MP-associated bacteria and taxa producing FDAse/urease, explaining enhanced MP physicochemical alterations in topsoil. The study underscored how microplastics exposure impact the soil bacterial communities and soil functions by restructuring the microbial interaction network across soil depths.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12057,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Biology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 103778"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145424533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The temporal dynamics of soil properties and microbial community structure under capsicum monoculture","authors":"Wangwang Xu ,&nbsp;Zijian Zhao ,&nbsp;JingXia Gao ,&nbsp;Qianqian Ma ,&nbsp;Fengbao Zhang ,&nbsp;Hongbing Li ,&nbsp;Hua Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103780","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103780","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The adverse effects of long-term monoculture increasingly threaten the sustainable development of the capsicum industry, leading to soil degradation and yield decline. Although monoculture systems exhibit favorable economic benefits in the early years, these advantages gradually diminish and transform into negative impacts with prolonged cultivation. However, during this transition, the changes in soil physicochemical properties and microbial communities, as well as their potential coupling mechanisms, remain unclear. In this study, soils from capsicum monocultures of 1, 2, 7, and 11 years (Y1, Y2, Y7, and Y11) were used to examine the effects of monoculture duration on soil physicochemical properties and microbial communities. Results showed that with increasing years of monoculture, soil pH in Y2, Y7, and Y11 decreased by 0.03–0.33 units compared with Y1, whereas electrical conductivity (EC), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), and saturated hydraulic conductivity (SHC) increased by 48.49–87.48 %, 163.24–342.54 %, 43.25–71.57 %, and 80.0–240.0 %, respectively. In contrast, total nitrogen (TN) and soil organic matter (SOM) increased by 24.50 % and 44.44 %, respectively, in short-term monoculture (Y2) compared with Y1, but both gradually declined with increasing monoculture duration. Nitrate nitrogen (NO₃⁻-N) and soil aggregate stability (WAS) remained relatively stable in the short term but declined markedly in the long term, with reductions of 69.30 % and 55.92 % in Y11 compared with Y1. In terms of microbial communities, short-term monoculture increased copiotrophic taxa (e.g., <em>Proteobacteria</em>, <em>Mortierellomycota</em>), whereas long-term monoculture reduced oligotrophic taxa (e.g., <em>Acidobacteriota</em>, <em>Rokubacteria</em>) and key nitrogen-cycling bacteria (e.g., <em>Nitrospira</em>). Simultaneously, long-term monoculture decreased the average degree, network density, and proportion of positive correlations in bacterial and fungal networks, thereby reducing community structural stability. Structural equation modeling (SEM) further indicated that pH, WAS, and NO₃⁻-N were the key factors influencing bacterial communities. These findings reveal that while short-term monoculture promotes nutrient release, long-term monoculture leads to nutrient imbalance, reduced aggregate stability, and disrupted microbial community structures, ultimately weakening carbon and nitrogen cycling functions and severely constraining the sustainable development of the capsicum industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12057,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Biology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 103780"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145424534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus alters plant-soil feedback affecting biomass production in conspecific and heterospecific plants","authors":"Xu Han ,&nbsp;Tingting Xia ,&nbsp;Kaiping Shen ,&nbsp;Bangli Wu ,&nbsp;Yuejun He","doi":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103779","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103779","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The interactions of plants and soil mediated by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi usually cause changes in soil biotic and abiotic conditions, further shifting subsequent plant performance during the plant-soil feedback (PSF). AM fungal propagules can initiate colonization to establish symbiosis that modulates host growth and soil nutrient availability. However, how AM fungi affect symbiotic performance and soil nutrients via fungal propagules to drive PSF remains unclear. In the present study, a PSF experiment was conducted, in which two grasses and two forbs were planted into pots with or without AM fungus <em>Funneliformis mosseae</em> to create conditioned soil substrates. Subsequently, these plants were planted separately into the conditioned soil substrates in feedback phase. The results showed that AM propagule legacy of the soil conditioning phase was positively related to mycorrhizal colonization, soil hyphal length and spores of the feedback phase. Mycorrhizal colonization and hyphal length were greater in forbs than in grasses in the feedback phase. AM fungus significantly promoted plant biomass production. Simultaneously, AM fungus enhanced positive feedback for forbs and negative feedback for grasses, but the mycorrhizal promotion on biomass production differently decreased in conspecific and heterospecific soils over time. Moreover, AM fungus altered soil nutrient legacy in the PSF. The structural equation model further presented that AM fungal performance was primarily determined by previous AM propagules, while the AM fungal performance and subsequent soil nutrients exerted direct and indirect promotions on the PSF of biomass production. We concluded that AM fungus promotes PSF of biomass production by modulating soil nutrients, with persistent contributions to biomass production in conspecific and heterospecific plants decreasing over time. This study highlights the persistent contribution of AM fungi in driving PSF process, which contributes to understanding the dynamic mechanisms of plant-mycorrhizae-soil interactions in the natural community.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12057,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Biology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 103779"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145358163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Changes in trait assemblages of oribatid mite communities during natural succession on post-mining sites","authors":"Andrés A. Salazar-Fillippo ,&nbsp;Rudy van Diggelen ,&nbsp;Jozef Stary ,&nbsp;Ladislav Miko ,&nbsp;Jan Frouz","doi":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103777","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejsobi.2025.103777","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Mining severely impacts ecosystems, yet our understanding of how biotic communities and environmental conditions co-develop during post-disturbance recovery remains limited. This knowledge is crucial for assessing restoration efforts in post-mining sites, which also offer ideal conditions to study how the ecosystem assembles during succession. This is particularly relevant for soil communities that are often overlooked but play a pivotal role in ecological processes. Here we use trait-based approaches to describe the response of soil community adaptations to the changing environment. We used a chronosequence of unreclaimed post-mining sites in the northwest borders of the Czech Republic, spanning four age ranges: 1–10 years, 11–20 years, 21–30 years, and 31–41 years since brown coal extraction. We focused on oribatid mites and assessed community-level trait syndromes using three complementary approaches: functional diversity metrics, RLQ, and fourth corner. We found five traits responding to the environmental gradient: mean body length, concealability, reproductive mode, sensillus shape, and sclerotization. These traits shaped oribatid mite communities in response to specific environmental parameters, revealing distinct groups of pioneers, mid-, and late-colonizers with varying ecological adaptations. Our results indicate that environmental constraints affecting traits separately may homogenise oribatid mite communities into ecomorphological groups during different successional stages. This approach highlights a strong and integral association of oribatid mites with ecosystem development following major disturbance. These outcomes show how soil communities can describe successional trajectories in post-mining sites and may thus support the assessment of restoration projects through complementary biomonitoring.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12057,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Biology","volume":"127 ","pages":"Article 103777"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145358164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}