Elevated ozone reshapes wheat root-associated microbiomes through coordinated plant responses and rhizosphere environmental filtering.

Elevated tropospheric ozone (1.5-fold ambient O 3 ) reshapes wheat root-associated microbiomes, with rhizosphere pH-linked shifts and ecoenzymatic vector changes of +4.1% length and −4.6% angle.

• Why it matters: O 3 threatens crop productivity, yet how ozone-driven plant responses translate into root microbiome restructuring and belowground functional changes is unclear.
• What they did: Four wheat cultivars were grown in a field-based FACE system under ambient versus 1.5-fold ambient O 3, then plant traits, root-released organic carbon, rhizosphere properties, extracellular enzyme activities, and bacterial/fungal communities were jointly analyzed.
• The result: O 3 reduced yield and root biomass and increased rhizosphere pH; bacterial community variation was most independently explained by soil properties (especially pH), while fungal taxa turnover was limited but trophic guilds shifted toward more pathotrophs and saprotrophs and fewer symbiotroph-containing groups.

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