Assistant professor National Taiwan University Taipei City, Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China)
The theory of plant-soil feedback has motivated more than two decades of research to predict the long-term consequences of plant-soil microbe interactions. These interactions are usually studied with a theory-inspired experiment, consisting of a conditioning phase during which plants modify the soil community and a response phase during which plants respond to the modification. One unspoken assumption underlying the mainstream approach is that microbial effects build up instantaneously and follow simple temporal trajectories. Here, I will discuss how overlooking the temporal aspects of plant-soil microbe interactions influence our interpretation of microbial effect in a natural context.
