Background and aimsSoil inoculation is a powerful tool for the restoration of terrestrial ecosystems. However, the origin of the donor material may differentially influence early- and late-successional plant species. Donor soil from late-succession stages may benefit target plant species due to a higher abundance of soil-borne mutualists. Arable soils, on the other hand, may suppress ruderals as they support more root herbivores that preferentially attack ruderal plant species, while mid-succession soils may be intermediate in their effects on ruderals and target species performance. We hypothesized that a mixture of arable and late-succession inocula may outperform pure late-successional inocula for restoration, by promoting late-successional target plants, while simultaneously reducing ruderal species’ performance.MethodsWe conducted a glasshouse experiment and tested the growth of ruderal and target plant species on pure and mixed inocula. The inocula were derived from arable fields, mid-succession grasslands and late-succession heathlands and we created a replacement series testing different pairwise mixitures for each of these inocula types (ratios: 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, 0:100 of inoculum A and B respectively).ResultsIn general, we found that a higher proportion of heathland material led to a higher aboveground biomass of target plant species, while responses of ruderal species were variable. We found synergistic effects when specific inocula were mixed. In particular, a 50:50 mixture of heathland and arable soil in the inoculum led to a significant reduction in ruderal species biomass relative to the two respective pure inocula. The overall response was driven by Myosotis arvensis, since the other two ruderal species were not significantly affected.ConclusionsMixing inocula from different successional stages can lead to synergistic effects on restoration, but this highly depends on the specific combination of inocula, the mixing ratio and plant species. This suggest that specific inocula may need to be developed in order to rapidly restore different plant communities.

中文翻译：

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通过混合不同演替阶段的接种物，在土壤接种中发挥协同作用以恢复自然

背景和目标土壤接种是恢复陆地生态系统的有力工具。然而，供体材料的来源可能对早期和晚期演替植物物种产生不同的影响。由于土传共生体的丰度较高，演替后期的供体土壤可能有利于目标植物物种。另一方面，耕地土壤可能会抑制杂草，因为它们支持更多优先攻击杂草的根部食草动物，而演替中期土壤对杂草和目标物种表现的影响可能是中间的。我们假设，可耕地和晚期演替接种物的混合物在恢复方面可能优于纯晚期演替接种物，可以促进晚期演替目标植物的生长，同时降低野生物种的性能。方法我们进行了温室实验，测试了野生和晚期演替植物的生长情况。纯接种物和混合接种物的目标植物种类。接种物来自耕地、演替中期草原和演替后期荒地，我们创建了一个替代系列，测试每种接种物类型的不同成对混合物（比例：100:0、75:25、50:50、25: 75, 接种物 A 和 B 分别为 0:100）。结果总的来说，我们发现较高比例的石南地材料导致目标植物物种的地上生物量较高，而杂草物种的反应是可变的。我们发现混合特定接种物时会产生协同效应。特别是，相对于两种各自的纯接种物，接种物中石南地和耕地土壤的 50:50 混合物导致粗野物种生物量显着减少。总体响应是由Myosotis arvensis驱动的，因为其他两种野生物种没有受到显着影响。结论混合不同演替阶段的接种物可以对恢复产生协同效应，但这在很大程度上取决于接种物的具体组合、混合比例和植物物种。这表明可能需要开发特定的接种物才能快速恢复不同的植物群落。