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Soil microbial legacies and drought mediate diversity-invasibility relationships in non-native communities
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  • Jiahui Yi,
  • Zhibin Tao,
  • Kaoping Zhang,
  • Baoguo Nie,
  • Evan Siemann,
  • Wei Huang
Jiahui Yi
Wuhan Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Zhibin Tao
Wuhan Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Kaoping Zhang
Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Baoguo Nie
Wuhan Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Evan Siemann
Rice University
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Wei Huang
Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology

Corresponding Author:huangwei0519@wbgcas.cn

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Abstract

High native species diversity generally suppresses non-native invasions, but many ecosystems are now characterized by non-native assemblages that vary in species diversity. How this non-native species diversity affects subsequent invaders and its environmental dependence remain unclear. Here, we conducted a plant-soil feedback experiment to investigate how non-native plant species diversity affects the growth of subsequent non-native plants, the role of soil microbes in this process, and the dependence of these patterns on drought. We found that under well-watered conditions, the biomass of subsequent invaders was higher with soil inocula generated by high non-native diversity, which was associated with higher arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal richness. However, under drought conditions, the biomass of subsequent invaders did not depend on soil inocula generated by non-native diversity. Our study reveals soil microbial legacies likely contribute to the commonly observed co-occurrence of multiple non-native species in nature and the importance of environmental conditions for these effects.