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Background and aims <p>Soil multifunctionality is a key indicator of ecosystem stability in degraded karst areas with intensive soil erosion. Vegetation restoration in these areas involves succession stages linked to changes in plants and soil microbial communities, yet their interactions and impacts on soil multifunctionality across succession remain understudied.</p> Methods <p>A “space-for-time” approach was employed, representing four restoration treatments: artificial disturbance forest (early), natural closed forest (mid), deciduous broad-leaved forest (late), and evergreen deciduous broad-leaved forest (climax). We analyzed soil microbial communities (16S and ITS rRNA sequencing), plant diversity, fine root traits, and soil multifunctionality.</p> Results <p>Vegetation succession significantly enhanced soil multifunctionality, particularly in later stages. Plant-microbial interactions were strengthened during succession as revealed by interdomain network analysis, which was closely associated with increases in specific root surface area (27%) and specific root length (29%), two key traits for resource acquisition. These morphological changes increased nutrient cycling and enzyme activity by 45–180% and 58–173%, respectively. Structural equation modeling showed that fine root traits explained 26% of the variation in soil multifunctionality, whereas plant diversity explained 16%, confirming that fine root traits were the dominant driver.</p> Conclusion <p>In karst soils, plants foster bacterial symbiosis by prioritizing root morphological plasticity over plant diversity, a strategy whereby efficient fine root traits enhance nutrient cycling and enzyme activity to increase soil multifunctionality, highlighting the importance of root morphological traits as key criteria for selecting plant species in karst vegetation restoration projects.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>

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Secondary succession of karst vegetation: fine root traits outweigh plant diversity in defining soil multifunctionality

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月16日

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  • Yifan Zhong,
  • Shuoxing Wei,
  • Pengpeng Duan,
  • Zhihui Wang,
  • Hanbiao Ou,
  • Huaxiang Wang,
  • Zhifeng Lu,
  • Feng Gao,
  • Dan Cao,
  • Lichao Wu,
  • Lijun Chen,
  • Yakov Kuzyakov

摘要

Background and aims

Soil multifunctionality is a key indicator of ecosystem stability in degraded karst areas with intensive soil erosion. Vegetation restoration in these areas involves succession stages linked to changes in plants and soil microbial communities, yet their interactions and impacts on soil multifunctionality across succession remain understudied.

Methods

A “space-for-time” approach was employed, representing four restoration treatments: artificial disturbance forest (early), natural closed forest (mid), deciduous broad-leaved forest (late), and evergreen deciduous broad-leaved forest (climax). We analyzed soil microbial communities (16S and ITS rRNA sequencing), plant diversity, fine root traits, and soil multifunctionality.

Results

Vegetation succession significantly enhanced soil multifunctionality, particularly in later stages. Plant-microbial interactions were strengthened during succession as revealed by interdomain network analysis, which was closely associated with increases in specific root surface area (27%) and specific root length (29%), two key traits for resource acquisition. These morphological changes increased nutrient cycling and enzyme activity by 45–180% and 58–173%, respectively. Structural equation modeling showed that fine root traits explained 26% of the variation in soil multifunctionality, whereas plant diversity explained 16%, confirming that fine root traits were the dominant driver.

Conclusion

In karst soils, plants foster bacterial symbiosis by prioritizing root morphological plasticity over plant diversity, a strategy whereby efficient fine root traits enhance nutrient cycling and enzyme activity to increase soil multifunctionality, highlighting the importance of root morphological traits as key criteria for selecting plant species in karst vegetation restoration projects.

Graphical Abstract