Precipitation-Driven Plant-Soil Interactions: Microbial Mediation of Ecosystem Function and Biogeochemical Cycling

Global ecosystems are increasingly exposed to altered precipitation regimes driven by climate change, including shifts in rainfall amount, frequency, and intensity. These changes exert profound impacts on ecosystem structure and functioning, particularly in water-limited regions such as arid and semi-arid ecosystems, where precipitation is the primary factor regulating biological processes. Understanding how ecosystems respond to precipitation variability has therefore become a central challenge in contemporary ecology.Traditionally, research on precipitation effects has focused predominantly on aboveground plant responses, including changes in biomass production, species composition, and functional traits. However, growing evidence highlights that belowground processes - especially soil microbial communities - play a critical and often underappreciated role in mediating ecosystem responses to precipitation change. Soil microorganisms regulate key biogeochemical processes, including carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling, and form dynamic links between plants and soil environments through complex ecological interactions.Recent advances in microbial ecology, ecological network analysis, and ecosystem modeling have provided new opportunities to unravel the mechanisms underlying plant-soil-microbe interactions across environmental gradients. In particular, integrating microbial mediation into precipitation-driven ecological frameworks is essential for improving our understanding of ecosystem stability, multifunctionality, and resilience under global change scenarios.This Research Topic aims to bring together cutting-edge studies that explore precipitation-driven plant-soil interactions with an explicit focus on microbial mediation of ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical cycling. By bridging aboveground and belowground processes, this Topic seeks to advance a more integrated and mechanistic understanding of ecosystem responses to climate variability. We invite original research articles, reviews, and perspectives that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:- Effects of precipitation variability on plant community structure, diversity, and biomass allocation patterns. - Soil microbial diversity, community assembly, ecological strategies, and functional traits along precipitation gradients. - Microbial regulation of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling under changing precipitation conditions. - Plant-soil-microbe interactions, including rhizosphere processes and above-belowground feedback mechanisms. - Cross-trophic interactions and ecological network complexity and stability in response to precipitation change. - Ecosystem multifunctionality, resistance, resilience, and recovery under climate variability and extreme events. Topic editors: Xiangyun Li, Ping Cong, Aixia Guo, Ya Hu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80887/precipitation-driven-plant-soil-interactions-microbial-mediation-of-ecosystem-function-and-biogeochemical-cycling