Plant-soil feedbacks as drivers of seedling establishment in tropical and sub-tropical forests

这个Pump-Priming项目特别建立在我们的NERC热带森林研究以及其他NERC和RCUK基金的基础上，与中国领先的研究小组（由广州中山大学的余教授领导）开展新的合作，以产生关于植物-土壤反馈如何介导亚热带森林中的幼苗建立和树木多样性的杰出研究。我们的建议利用余教授在树苗补充方面的高影响力研究成果，并采用我们自己的机制方法来了解全球普遍存在的菌根真菌的生态，以及这些森林中的关键共生体。该提案将使PI研究人员交流设计现场实验，首先，询问现有的植物群落组成和土壤特性的数据集，其次，设计现场实验，以测试以前在盆栽实验或草地上开发的原位想法。具体而言，我们将利用独特的田间实验设施和余教授提供的数据，测试菌根类型和菌根真菌菌丝网络如何促进幼苗的建立。此外，将实地实验与现有的土壤和植物特性的独特数据集（由余教授领导）结合起来，再加上尖端同位素示踪剂的应用（由约翰逊教授领导），将在了解土壤生物群如何影响实际条件下的幼苗建立方面取得进展。Pump Priming提案将为开发新的合作研究提案提供基础工作，并生成令人兴奋的新合成数据集和输出。合作的持久性将立即得到我们合作伙伴的大量投资的帮助，包括分配中国资助的研究生奖学金，以进一步发展我们的研究成果，并确保提案生命周期之后的连续性。

This Pump-Priming proposal builds specifically on our NERC research in tropical forests, as well as other NERC and RCUK funding, to develop a new collaboration with a leading Chinese research group (led by Prof Yu at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou) to generate outstanding research on how plant-soil feedbacks mediate seedling establishment and tree diversity in sub-tropical forests. Our proposal takes advantage of Prof Yu's high-impact research findings on tree seedling recruitment with our own mechanistic approaches used to understand the ecology of mycorrhizal fungi, which are globally prevalent and key symbionts in these forests. The proposal will enable PI-researcher exchanges to design field experiments, first, to interrogate existing datasets on plant community composition and soil properties, and second, to devise field experiments to test in situ ideas developed previously either in pot-based experiments, or in grassland. Specifically, we will use unique field experimental facilities and data made available by Prof Yu to test how mycorrhizal type and mycorrhizal fungal hyphal networks facilitate seedling establishment. Moreover, integration of field experiments with existing unique datasets on soil and plant properties (led by Prof Yu), together with application of cutting-edge isotope tracers (led by Prof Johnson) will make a step-change in understanding how soil biota influences seedling establishment in realistic conditions. The Pump Priming proposal will provide the ground-work for development of new collaborative research proposals, as well as generating exciting new synthetic datasets and outputs. The durability of the collaboration will be aided immediately by significant investment from our partners, including allocation of Chinese-funded research studentships to further develop our findings and ensure continuity beyond the lifetime of the proposal.