Beyond Taxonomy: Trait-based Approaches to Understanding Soil and Rhizosphere Interactions and Processes

Rhizosphere and surface soil are the hotspots of belowground biological interactions and processes. Understanding the roles of roots and microbiota in such region is essential for explaining soil biogeochemistry. Plant traits, such as root architecture, tissue chemistry, and resource-use strategies, determine the quantity and quality of organic inputs entering soil, shaping microbial substrates and microhabitats. Microbial traits, including but not limited to enzyme production, growth efficiency, sensing and mobility, govern how these inputs are transformed in soil and what the downstream feedbacks on plant performance are. Recent advances in technological approaches allow deeper understanding of both plant and microbial traits, which improves our ability to predict soil responses to environmental changes, such as drought, nutrient deficiency or deposition, and land-use shifts, and helps integrate plant–microbe interactions into biogeochemical models. The goal of this Research Topic is to identify general, mechanistic principles by which plant and microbial functional traits co-determine the outcome of their interactions and jointly regulate soil processes. By synthesizing trait-based evidence beyond plant and microbial taxonomy, the topic aims to link ecological strategies of both plants and microbiome to community assembly, dynamics, and soil processes, and to improve predictions of how communities respond to environmental change. We encourage theory-based, hypothesis-testing research that investigating topics such as trait conservatisms and plasticity, trade-offs, multidimensional trait integrations, environmental filtering, and aiming to understand fundamental ecological questions such as coexistence, competition, mutualism, and biodiversity. Ultimately, the goal is to move toward transferable, trait-driven frameworks that connect biodiversity with soil function and ecosystem resilience.We invite original research and modeling works that advance a trait-based understanding of rhizosphere and soil interactions, community assembly, and processes. Contributions should explore how functional traits, including but not limited to root traits, bacterial and fungal metabolic activities, and mycorrhizal colonization and hyphal activities, shape the outcome of rhizosphere and soil interactions and processes. Lab-based research, field observations, and theoretical works addressing such topic are welcome. Studies integrating experiments, field observations, multi-omics, trait databases, or modeling frameworks are encouraged. Novel approaches linking taxonomic identities to functional traits, or integrating multi-dimensional trait platforms into ecological strategy frameworks are especially highlighted. Topic editors: Siya Shao, Mingfei Chen, Aishwarya Santosh Deshpande, Yuguo Yang Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77929/beyond-taxonomy-trait-based-approaches-to-understanding-soil-and-rhizosphere-interactions-and-processes