Dominant plants firmly affect community species composition, diversity, productivity, and belowground functions in terrestrial ecosystems. Soil extracellular enzyme activities (EEAs), as indicators for soil function, have linked the above- and belowground components and functions. However, in semi-arid grasslands, little is known about the effects of dominant plant and community type on soil EEAs, especially in the contribution of each dominant species to soil EEAs of its respective entire community. Given that, we established the comparison of the effects of three dominant herbal plants and their respective communities on soil EEAs and soil properties, determined the contribution of each dominant plant to its community-level soil EEAs, and examined key factors mediating these relationships in the Songnen grassland. Results showed that soil EEAs among the three dominant plants had more significant differences than among the three communities. This implied that dominant plant identities had significant effects on their rhizosphere soil EEAs and the difference of soil EEAs at the community level mainly depended on vegetation composition (including dominant species identity). The variations of soil EEAs at the dominant plant level and the community level were driven by different soil factors, the former being pH and electrical conductivity, and the latter being soil moisture and total carbon. Additionally, the distribution of soil EEAs was highly similar between each dominant plant and its respective community, which suggested dominant plants largely controlled soil EEAs in their respective communities. Overall, our findings expanded our understanding of the role of dominant species in soil function in semi-arid grassland ecosystems.

优势植物牢固地影响着陆地生态系统中的群落物种组成，多样性，生产力和地下功能。作为细胞功能指标的土壤细胞外酶活性（EEA），将地上和地下的成分和功能联系在一起。但是，在半干旱草原上，关于优势植物和群落类型对土壤EEA的影响知之甚少，尤其是在每种优势物种对其整个群落的土壤EEA的贡献中。鉴于此，我们建立了三种优势草本植物及其各自群落对土壤EEAs和土壤特性的影响的比较，确定了每种优势植物对其群落水平土壤EEAs的贡献，并研究了介导这些关系的关键因素。松嫩草原。结果表明，三种优势植物之间的土壤EEA差异比三种群落之间更大。这表明优势植物身份对它们的根际土壤EEA有显着影响，而群落水平上土壤EEA的差异主要取决于植被组成（包括优势物种身份）。土壤EEAs在优势植物水平和群落水平上的变化是由不同的土壤因素驱动的，前者是pH和电导率，后者是土壤水分和总碳。此外，每种优势植物及其群落之间的土壤EEA分布高度相似，这表明优势植物在各自的群落中很大程度上控制了土壤EEA。总体，