Seed mucilage of Artemisia sphaerocephala may enrich the soil microbial community

摘要

Seed mucilage of many desert plants is one of the evolutionary adaptations of plants to desert environments. The seed mucilage is an important functional trait that provides many ecological benefits (Western 2012, Yang et al 2012). Previous studies onthe function of mucilage have mainly focused on aspects of seed dispersal strategy or seed germination. The objectives of the present study were to examine the effect of mucilage on soil microbes.