Soil pH influences patterns of plant community composition after restoration with native‐based seed mixes

Abstract

Reclamation of highly disturbed lands typically includes establishing fast‐growing, non‐native plants to achieve rapid ground cover for erosion control. Establishing native plant communities could achieve ecosystem functions beyond soil erosion, such as providing wildlife habitat. Pipelines, or other disturbed corridors through a landscape, present unique challenges for establishing native plant communities given the heterogeneity of soil environments and invasive plant propagule pressure. We created two structural equation models to address multiple related hypotheses about the influence of soil pH on plant community composition (current diversity and vegetative cover of the original restoration seed mix and background flora, and invasive plant density during mix establishment and current density) of a highly disturbed landscape corridor restored with native species. To test our hypotheses we conducted a plant survey on a gas pipeline crossing two state forests in the north‐central Appalachians that had been seeded with a native‐based mixture 8 years prior. Low soil pH was a strong predictor of density of the invasive annual plant, Microstegium vimineum, and had resulted in lower species diversity and cover of the seeded mix. Overall, our data provide evidence that native‐based grass and forb mixtures can establish and persist on a wide range of soil environments and thrive in competition with invasive plants in moderately acidic to neutral soils. Advancing knowledge on restoration methods using native species is essential to improving restoration practice norms to incorporate multifunctional ecological goals.

Microbial mediators of plant community response to long‐term N and P fertilization: Evidence of a role of plant responsiveness to mycorrhizal fungi

“…As for legumes, their exposure to high soil N may disrupt their physiological processes due to suppression of rhizobia fixation or the nitrogenase activity, which may explain the decreased effect with the increase in N levels (Tian et al, 2020). In addition, a number of theories or hypotheses related to environmental conditions have been proposed to explain plant community dynamics in response to N enrichment, like soil acidification (Barlow et al, 2020;Horswill et al, 2008) and ionic toxicity induced by acidification (Bowman et al, 2008;Tian et al, 2016Tian et al, , 2020. However, in our study, we did not observe a significant pH decrease probably due to the soil buffering capacity (Figure S1c).…”

Twenty Years of Urban Reforestation: Overstory Development Structures Understory Plant Communities in Lexington, KY, USA

“…Furthermore, NMDS identified the soil pH as a key site factor, structuring plant communities across these sites. Soil pH is a critical determinant of plant nutrient availability and can exert a profound influence on plant community structure and composition, especially in the restoration of degraded lands [67]. Urban soils are highly heterogeneous and exhibit complex effects of prior management [68]; these, and other legacy effects of human activity, structure plant communities [69,70].…”

Relationship between Soil Fungi and Seedling Density in the Vicinity of Adult Conspecifics in an Arid Desert Forest

“…This indicates that soil salinity, pH, and water content may be the priority factors impacting seedling density. As the two main ecological limiting factors in this arid desert forest ecosystem, the increase in soil salinity and drought stresses can reduce seedling survival and seed germination through a change in osmotic pressure and electrolyte balance [43][44][45]. In addition, with the increase in these factors, the resistance of seedlings to fungal infection would be decreased, resulting in seedling death and changing the distribution pattern of seedling density [3,8,43,44].…”