Plant-soil Feedbacks in European Temperate Trees

Komposch, Armin Philipp (2023). Plant-soil Feedbacks in European Temperate Trees (Unpublished). (Dissertation, Institute of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Science)

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In this thesis I experimentally investigate different levels of plant-soil feed-back in several European temperate tree species, feedbacks between differ-ent tree species, between different populations of the same species, and between individuals within a population. The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 gives a general introduction to the topic (current part). Chapters 2-4 report on three plant soil-feedback common garden experiments with the corresponding results presented and discussed in the format of scientific publications with the following topics:
In Chapter 2¸ I study plant-soil feedbacks of 17 European temperate tree species. I investigate possible factors influencing the strength of plant-soil feedbacks, such as the type of mycorrhizal fungi a tree is associated with or whether a tree grows fast or slow. The major novelty of this chapter is based on its combination of several ecological concepts (growth-defence trade-off with Janzen-Connell effects). Furthermore, this is the most comprehensive study to date of plant-soil feedbacks in European temperate forests in terms of the number of tree species studied simultaneously.
In Chapter 3, I then focus on the first within-species level, i.e. on variation in plant-soil feedback strength between populations. Specifically, I examine whether six tree species perform worse or better when growing with soil biota from their own and from a different population. While there is some evidence of negative intraspecific plant-soil feedbacks for tropical and sub-tropical forests, few such studies exist for temperate forests, and some of them show opposite results to the tropical studies, arguing for the sympatric advantage hypothesis. I discuss the relationship between intraspecific plant-soil feedbacks and local adaptation and what important implications this may have for both ecology and forestry.
In Chapter 4 I go one step further and investigate plant-soil feedbacks within populations of five different European tree species. Studies that ad-dress plant-soil feedbacks within populations are very rare and yet im-portant. So far, no other study has investigated the plant-soil feedbacks for different temperate tree species simultaneously. In this chapter, I show what we can learn from including the within-population level in the study of plant-soil feedbacks and what implications such feedbacks might have for science and forest management.
In Chapter V, I summarise the whole work, compare plant-soil feedbacks at the between-tree, between-population and between-species levels. I discuss why mutualists deserve as much consideration in plant-soil feedback studies as pathogens. Furthermore, I focus on how far intra- and interspecific plant-soil feedbacks are comparable and what we can learn from including the different levels. Furthermore, I show how not considering these different levels can confound the interpretation of plant-soil feedback studies. Last but not least I draw my general conclusions for science and application.

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