Data from: Escape from harmful soil biota at high elevations: Plant-soil feedbacks along stress gradients
Data files
Apr 04, 2025 version files 103.12 KB
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Alpine_project_data_PSF_Training.xlsx
38.77 KB
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Alpine_project_data_Total_biomass.xlsx
62.30 KB
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README.md
2.06 KB
Abstract
Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) have strong effects on plant community diversity and composition, but we know less about how the abiotic environment alters PSFs. In the context of the Stress Gradient Hypothesis (SGH) we predicted less negative PSFs in alpine vs. prairie systems and tested this with three alpine and four prairie species and soil from three elevational gradients in western Montana, USA. All species were smaller when grown in prairie soil than in alpine soil, and sterilization of soil increased the growth only of alpine species in prairie soil. Training prairie soil with conspecifics decreased the biomass of both alpine and prairie species, but training alpine soil had no effect. PSFs were three times more negative when plants were grown in low-elevation prairie soils than in alpine soils. Consistent with the original ideas for the SGH, the frequency of positive PSFs were higher in alpine soil than in prairie soil and the frequency of negative PSFs was higher in prairie soil than in alpine soil. Our results suggested that alpine species may escape more intense negative PSFs at lower elevations and that PSFs will not limit the upward movement of plant species as temperatures warm.
[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pk0p2ngws]( https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pk0p2ngws)
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset includes two data sheets. The first data sheet is named as “Alpine_project_data_Total_biomass.xlsx”. The second data sheet is named as “Alpine_project_data_PSF_Training.xlsx”. All analyses were conducted using R version 4.3.
(1) Alpine_project_data_Total_biomass.xlsx
This contains data for the total biomass of alpine species and non-alpine species grown in the two-phase plant soil feedback (PFS) experiment respectively.
Site: three distinct alpine sites and three paired sites in intermontane grasslands (referred to as prairie sites hereafter).
Soil_Origin: soil from alpine site or from prairie sites (non-alpine).
Species: species used in this experiment.
Species_Origin: species from alpine site or from prairie sites (non-alpine).
Training: two soil training treatments (trained soil with plants vs. non-trained controls).
Sterilization: two soil treatments (live vs. sterilized trained soil).
Total_Mass: total biomass of all the species in different treatments (g).
NA in Total_Mass: biomass no applicable due to plant mortality.
(2) Alpine_project_data_PSF_Training.xlsx
This contains data for the results of plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs).
Site: three distinct alpine sites and three paired sites in intermontane grasslands (referred to as prairie sites hereafter).
Soil_Origin: soil from alpine site or from prairie sites (non-alpine).
Species: species used in this experiment.
Species_Origin: species from alpine site or from prairie sites (non-alpine).
Sterilization: two soil treatments (live vs. sterilized trained soil).
Total_Mass_PSF_Training: results of plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs)
Code/Software
R version 4.3.
Running under macOS Sequoia 15.3.1.