Discussion
In this study, we tested the effect of tree-tree interactions and the
spatial distribution of microbial biomass and respiration in subtropical
forest soils. We did not find any significant tree-tree interaction
effects on the aggregated soil samples at the species pair level.
However, there were substantial variations in tree-tree interaction
effects at the small spatial scale. In fact, effects on both soil
microbial properties were spatially distributed, ranging from
overyielding near one tree species to underyielding close to the other
tree species.