Although plant-soil interactions are increasingly recognized as an important factor in ecosystem restoration, their effects on community assembly during de novo ecosystem establishment are largely unknown. In a heathland restoration trial after topsoil removal we introduced either only aboveground heathland species with fresh herbage or both above- and belowground heathland species with sods to facilitate community assembly. Sod inoculation increased resemblance of the microbial community to the reference system, with a higher fungal and lower bacterial proportion to the community structure. Also densities of bacteriophagous and phytophagous nematodes, Acari and Collembola increased after sod inoculation. The cover of heathland plant species increased by 49% after sod inoculation. The introduction of solely aboveground heathland species increased the cover of these species by only 13%, and did not affect soil community assembly. Additionally, the increase in cover of heathland species over time was inversely correlated to the cover of mesotrophic grassland species. Inverse correlations were also observed between changes in fungal and bacterial abundances. Simultaneous introduction of key species of both above- and below-ground communities had a critical effect on the establishment of both communities, providing a potential shortcut for successful restoration of target ecosystems on disturbed soils.

中文翻译：

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促进生态系统组装：植物-土壤相互作用作为恢复工具

尽管植物与土壤的相互作用越来越被认为是生态系统恢复的重要因素，但它们对从头生态系统建立过程中群落组装的影响在很大程度上尚不清楚。在表土去除后的石南地恢复试验中，我们要么仅引入带有新鲜牧草的地上石南地物种，要么引入带有草皮的地上和地下石南地物种以促进群落组装。接种草皮增加了微生物群落与参考系统的相似性，群落结构中真菌比例较高，细菌比例较低。接种草皮后，食菌性和植食性线虫、螨虫和跳虫的密度也增加。接种草皮后，石南植物物种的覆盖率增加了 49%。仅引入地上石楠物种仅使这些物种的覆盖度增加了 13%，并且不影响土壤群落的组装。此外，随着时间的推移，石南地物种的覆盖面积增加与中营养草原物种的覆盖面积呈负相关。真菌和细菌丰度变化之间也观察到负相关。同时引入地上和地下群落的关键物种对这两个群落的建立产生了至关重要的影响，为受干扰土壤上目标生态系统的成功恢复提供了潜在的捷径。