Soil legacies of extreme droughts enhance the performance of invading plants

Abstract

Extreme droughts can weaken the biotic resistance of native plant communities against the establishment of invading plants. However, we know little about the underlying mechanisms. Using a plant-soil feedback approach, we tested how an extreme drought event alters the soil-mediated biotic resistance of resident native plant communities against invading plant species from native and non-native ranges, namely non-resident natives, native range-expanders, and alien plants. We show that all three types of invading plants performed better in soils with a legacy of extreme drought independent of resident native plant diversity. Path models revealed that extreme drought effects on non-resident natives were mediated by the root biomass of resident native plants and endophytic fungal pathogens during drought, whereas alien plant performance was mediated only via the root biomass of resident native plants also during drought. Our results highlight that the performance of resident native plants during extreme drought and subsequent effects on soil fungi determine the performance of invading plants from native and non-native origins after extreme droughts.