Data from: Abiotic legacies mediate plant-soil feedback during early vegetation succession on rare earth element mine tailings

An increasing number of studies have shown how feedback interactions
between plants and soil can influence primary and secondary succession.
However, very little is known about the patterns and mechanisms of such
plant-soil feedbacks on stressed mine tailings ecosystem, which can be
severely contaminated by a range of toxic elements.  In a two-phase
plant-soil feedback experiment based on the rare earth element (REE) mine
tailing soil, we investigated biotic (changes in bacterial and fungal
community) and abiotic legacies (changes in chemical properties) of three
pioneer grass species, and examined feedback effects of three grasses, two
legumes and two woody plants with different root traits. Positive
plant-soil feedback was found in Miscanthus sinensis, Paspalum thunbergii
and Tephrosia candida, and neutral feedback was observed in other four
plants. These effects corresponded with an increase of nutrients and total
organic carbon, as well as a decrease of acidity and extractable aluminum
and REEs. There were less signs of biotic changes in the conditioned
tailings.  The correlation analysis suggested a relationship between
responses to soil legacies and root traits, as well as root economics
spectrum. On the mine tailings, acquisitive species with higher specific
root length appeared to have greater potential for positive feedback. 
Synthesis and application: Our study shows that early succession on
contaminated REE mine tailings may lead to more positive plant-soil
feedback than predicted based on results of non-contaminated soils, mainly
due to the alleviation of abiotic stress in tailings. Therefore, the
improvement of specific abiotic soil stress and the trait-based selection
of acquisitive plants should be preferentially considered to promote the
primary restoration of degraded land.