A trait-based framework linking the soil metabolome to plant–soil feedbacks

Abstract

By modifying the biotic and abiotic properties of the soil, plants create soil legacies that can affect vegetation dynamics through plant–soil feedbacks (PSF). PSF are generally attributed to reciprocal effects of plants and soil biota, but these interactions can also drive changes in the identity, diversity and abundance of soil metabolites, leading to more or less persistent soil chemical legacies whose role in mediating PSF has rarely been considered. These chemical legacies may interact with microbial or nutrient legacies to affect species coexistence. Given the ecological importance of chemical interactions between plants and other organisms, a better understanding of soil chemical legacies is needed in community ecology. In this Viewpoint, we aim to: highlight the importance of belowground chemical interactions for PSF; define and integrate soil chemical legacies into PSF research by clarifying how the soil metabolome can contribute to PSF; discuss how functional traits can help predict these plant–soil interactions; propose an experimental approach to quantify plant responses to the soil solution metabolome; and describe a testable framework relying on root economics and seed dispersal traits to predict how plant species affect the soil metabolome and how they could respond to soil chemical legacies.