一项日前发表于《自然—植物学》杂志的研究表明，改变生活在土壤中的有机体或能改变在土壤中生长的植物类型。

在荷兰开展的一项田间试验发现，在退化土地上添加一薄层来自健康生态系统的土壤，会极大加快修复速度。不过，真正令人惊奇的是，这种移入能决定该生态系统向哪个方向发展。

“土壤有机体是决定生态系统将何去何从的‘舵手’。”来自荷兰生态研究所的Jasper Wubs表示。

农民和园丁很早便知道，向土壤中添加特定有机体能促进植物生长并帮助预防疾病。试验也证实，将来自成熟草地的有机体移入土壤，能帮助草地植物在同茁壮生长于其他类型土地的植物的竞争中胜出。

不过，Wubs团队首次在大规模田间试验中证实，向土壤中移入有机体能决定何种类型的生态系统从头开始形成。

他的团队将一薄层不到1厘米厚的土壤连同生活在里面的所有生物覆盖到此前的农田上。他们还向每块土地中分别添加了来自草地或灌木丛的土壤。

研究发现，移入物的来源决定了哪种植物将茁壮生长。例如，在一块被移入了草地土壤的农田中，6年后，只有不到5%的土地被来自灌木丛的物种覆盖。相反，在被移入了灌木丛土壤的农田中，超过15%的土地被灌木丛物种覆盖。

由于添加的土壤非常少，该团队将这种效应归结于土壤生物的变化。他们发现，这种移入同时改变了生活在土壤中的细菌、真菌和蠕虫的丰度及类型，使其更像“捐赠”的生态系统。（来源：中国科学报  徐徐）

Soil inoculation steers restoration of terrestrial ecosystems

Abstract  Many natural ecosystems have been degraded because of human activities and need to be restored so that biodiversity is protected. However, restoration can take decades and restoration activities are often unsuccessful because of abiotic constraints (for example, eutrophication, acidification) and unfavourable biotic conditions (for example, competition or adverse soil community composition). A key question is what manageable factors prevent transition from degraded to restored ecosystems and what interventions are required for successful restoration. Experiments have shown that the soil community is an important driver of plant community development, suggesting that manipulation of the soil community is key to successful restoration of terrestrial ecosystems. Here we examine a large-scale, six-year-old field experiment on ex-arable land and show that application of soil inocula not only promotes ecosystem restoration, but that different origins of soil inocula can steer the plant community development towards different target communities, varying from grassland to heathland vegetation. The impact of soil inoculation on plant and soil community composition was most pronounced when the topsoil layer was removed, whereas effects were less strong, but still significant, when the soil inocula were introduced into intact topsoil. Therefore, soil inoculation is a powerful tool to both restore disturbed terrestrial ecosystems and steer plant community development.

原文链接：http://www.nature.com/articles/nplants2016107