Plant–soil feedbacks (PSFs) are often involved in fundamental ecological processes such as plant succession and species coexistence. After a plant initiating PSFs dies, legacies of PSFs occurring as soil signatures that influence subsequent plants could persist for an unknown duration. Altered resource environments following plant death (especially light availability) could affect whether legacy effects manifest and persist. To evaluate PSFs and their legacies, we obtained soils from a chronosequence of Prunus serotina harvests. In a greenhouse experiment, we planted conspecific seedlings under two light levels in these soils of varying time since the influence of live Prunus serotina, and compared seed/seedling survival in soils from live trees, stumps, and surrounding forest matrix within each site and across the chronosequence. PSF legacies were measured as the difference between seedling performance in live tree and stump soils within a site. Negative PSF legacies of P. serotina were short-lived, lasting up to 0.5 years after tree removal. These effects occurred under 5% but not 30% full sun. PSFs and their legacies manifested in seed/seedling survival, but not biomass. Though restricted to low light, short-lived legacies of P. serotina PSFs could have lasting impacts on plant community dynamics during post-disturbance regeneration by disfavoring P. serotina regeneration in small tree-fall gaps.

植物-土壤反馈（PSF）通常涉及基本的生态过程，例如植物演替和物种共存。引发PSF的植物死亡后，以土壤特征出现的PSF遗留物会影响随后的植物，可能持续不明的持续时间。植物死亡后改变的资源环境（尤其是光的可用性）可能会影响遗留效应是否得以体现和持续。为了评估PSF及其遗留力，我们从李子血清收获的时间序列中获得了土壤。在温室实验中，由于活李子血清的影响，我们在两种不同时间的土壤中以两种光照水平种植了同种苗，并比较了每个地点和整个时间序列中活树，树桩和周围森林基质在土壤中的种子/幼苗存活率。PSF的遗留性被测量为现场树木和树桩土壤中幼苗性能之间的差异。P. serotina的PSF阴性遗留是短暂的，持续到树木摘除后长达0.5年。这些影响发生在5％的阳光下，而不是30％的阳光下。PSF及其遗产在种子/幼苗存活中表现出来，但在生物量中没有表现出来。尽管限于弱光，但血清锈病PSFs的短寿命遗留物在扰动后的再生过程中可能会通过在较小的树木倒下的间隙中不利于血清锈菌的再生而对植物群落动态产生持久的影响。