Plant-Soil-Microorganism: Diversity and Interactions

Dear Colleagues,

Plant–microbe interaction is a complex and dynamic process that has experienced long-term evolution with environmental changes on earth. Interactions between plants and microorganisms play a fundamental role in maintaining biodiversity and terrestrial ecosystem functioning (e.g., plant productivity and soil fertility) by influencing plant growth and fitness, soil biogeochemical cycles, and competitive ability for nutrients. The direction and magnitude of plant–microbe interactions can vary largely within and between species, and under human-induced global change such as climate warming, altered precipitation, and land-use change, which ultimately determine the positive or negative impacts of microorganisms on plant health. Investigating the associations of plants with microorganisms would thus be crucial for our understanding of how plants can benefit from their microbial partners. Soil and plant-associated microbiomes have enormous diversity in both natural and agricultural ecosystems. As the drivers of elemental biogeochemical cycling, microorganisms are the major determinants of terrestrial ecosystem stability and productivity. Similar to plants, most microbial taxa exhibit biogeographic patterns. However, the ecological drivers and mechanisms shaping these patterns may be different across taxa, habitats, and scales. There is now growing interest in exploring these research fields via the application of ecological theories, omics approaches, and machine learning methods. The papers presented in this Special Issue mainly focus on new and cutting-edge knowledge on the following interesting topics:

• Soil biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality;
• Host–microbiome interactions and plant health;
• Soil microbial–plant diversity relationships;
• Effects of climate change on microbial–plant interactions;
• Diversity patterns and community assembly;
• Evolutionary genetics of plant and microbial adaptation;
• Microbial mediation of soil biogeochemical cycles;
• Models and methodologies for plant–soil–microorganism feedbacks.

Prof. Dr. Xiaobo Wang
Guest Editor

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