Soil sampling for abiotic parameters and soil microbial analysis
Nine soil cores were taken from each experimental subplot (1.3 cm
diameter, 10 cm depth). these cores were then bulked and homogenized. A
2 mL tube was filled with a subset of homogenized soil for molecular
analysis at the day of sampling and stored at -80 °C. Soils were sampled
twice, both at roughly the same time that the plant community
composition was recorded; once at the end of the conditioning phase,
just before the vegetation was removed (May 2017) in order to establish
the conditioning effects on the soil microbial community. The second
sampling was used to assess whether the legacy effects persisted over
time and took place roughly two months after the establishment of the
responding plant community (September 2018).