Fig. 1.

Ordination diagram based on the first two axes of a non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis of the soil microbial community shift after a one generation of plants were grown under Scabiosa columbaria, Sanguisorba minor or left bare as field soil, b the second generation of plants was grown under S. columbaria, c the second generation of plants was grown under S. minor. Black markers: field soil, red: S. columbaria conditioning in the first generation, grey: S. minor conditioning in the first generation. In plots b and c, circles are well-watered pots, squares are droughted. The ellipses in panels a and c denote standard error of the variation between pots. Where they appear, a statistically significant treatment effect was detected. In a, there is a significant effect of soil conditioning on the microbial community in the first generation. In c, there is a significant effect of the watering treatment on soil microbial community under S. minor in the second generation. Please note that a colour version of this figure is available in the online version of this journal