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Legume-soil interactions: legume addition enhances the complexity of the soil food web

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Abstract

Background and aims

Legumes play significant roles in improving soil fertility and are commonly used to improve net primary productivity (NPP). However, the relationship between legumes and soil food web conditions in forest ecosystems is poorly known. The objective of this work was to address this problem.

Methods

A shrub legume species, Cassia alata, was planted to the understory layers of mixed-canopy tree plantations in southern China. The effects of legume addition on soil physico-chemical properties and soil nematode community were measured.

Results

Legume addition significantly increased soil total nitrogen and tended to increase soil water content and organic carbon at two soil depths both during wet and dry seasons. Legume addition increased the maturity indices and structure index of soil nematodes, which indicated that the presence of legumes enhanced the structure of soil food web. Redundancy analysis revealed that soil physico-chemical properties can explain up to 19.2 % of total variance of soil nematode community represented by functional guilds.

Conclusions

Overall, there are significant interactions between legume and soil properties (both physico-chemical and biological properties); and the presence of legumes increases the soil nitrogen and organic contents and remarkably enhances the structure and complexity of the soil food web (i.e., more trophic links and multi-trophic interactions occured). Our findings could provide a better understanding of plant-soil interactions, particularly, the legume-soil interactions.

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Acknowledgments

This study was conducted at Heshan Hilly Land Interdisciplinary Experimental Station, CAS and Heshan National Field Research Station of Forest Ecosystem. This study was financially supported by NSFC projects (30925010, U1131001 and 31300448). We gratefully thank Deborah A. Neher for editing and reviewing the manuscript, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xingke Road 723, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510650, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Zhao, Xiaoling Wang, Xiaoli Wang & Shenglei Fu

  2. Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, 410125, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Zhao

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  1. Jie Zhao
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  2. Xiaoling Wang
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  3. Xiaoli Wang
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  4. Shenglei Fu
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Correspondence to Shenglei Fu.

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Responsible Editor: Hans Lambers.

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Zhao, J., Wang, X., Wang, X. et al. Legume-soil interactions: legume addition enhances the complexity of the soil food web. Plant Soil 385, 273–286 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2234-2

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