From the root of variation: A metabolomics perspective to plant soil-feedback

By growing in a soil plants change the biotic and abiotic properties of the soil in which they grow. This can influence the performance of plants that grow in the same soil subsequently and is known as plant soil feedback (PSF). Species largely differ in how they influence the soil while they grow in it and how they react to conditioned soil. So far PSF was mainly shown to influence biomass of plants and certain specific chemical compounds in plants. This thesis demonstrates how the whole metabolome of a range of different plants changes due to different microbiomes in the soil and that the influence of soil on the metabolome of plants can be stronger than the effect of herbivory. Furthermore, this thesis shows how these PSF change over time and on different spatial scales and which methods are most suitable to study the metabolomic response of plants.