Root exudates act as key energy and signalling carriers linking roots with rhizosphere microbes, yet how their quantity and quality mediate root-microbe coordination remains unclear. Here, we measured fine root exudation rates and chemical composition, functional traits, and soil microbial communities across 13 coexisting subtropical tree species. Root exudation release rates and composition tightly aligned with the conservative-acquisitive root economics spectrum, bridging strategic synergy between roots and their microbial partners. Acquisitive roots with higher nitrogen concentrations released exudates at higher rates and greater chemodiversity, supporting more diverse microbial communities enriched in fast-growing copiotrophs and saprotrophic fungi, but with reduced symbiotic fungal abundance, whereas conservative roots with higher tissue density showed the opposite pattern. These results highlight root exudate, especially its chemical composition, as a key trait shaping the root-microbe functional continuum, providing novel insights into mechanisms of belowground functional integrations which affect species coexistence and ecosystem functioning under environmental change.
Yang et al. (2026) studied this question.