Plant-soil feedback promotes vegetation succession in degraded areas: Perspectives and applications

Plant–soil feedback (PSF) links the environment and organisms, and is a fundamental theory underlying vegetation succession, which may facilitate the restoration of damaged environments. However, because site conditions are often neglected and the position of PSF within successional sequences remains unclear, its application in degraded environments has progressed slowly. Across diverse and degraded habitats, the interaction between disturbance history and PSF processes should be emphasized. Variations in PSFs over time might provide new insights into the core mechanisms driving succession, and improvements in methodology can increase the practicality of restoration applications. Here, the role of PSFs in vegetation succession of degraded areas is discussed, emphasizing the relative importance of biotic and abiotic factors, and summarizing the inadequacies and development trends of current methodologies. On this basis, PSFs play a crucial role in natural succession, particularly during the middle stage, when PSF patterns may resolve unpredictable recovery directions, and further efforts should be devoted to regulating abiotic stress or manipulating negative feedback associated with dominant species in severely or mildly degraded habitats, respectively. Methodologies that account for spatiotemporal scales and are more closely aligned with field conditions can provide more appropriate guidance for restoring degraded areas.