In the beginning,there was only bare regolith-then some plants arrived and changed the regolith

Pedogenesis along chronosequences has received attention from soil scientists for decades,following the pioneering work of Walker and Syers(1976),who showed a general pattern of the availability of nitrogen(N)and phosphorus(P)subsequently confirmed for a range of chronosequences(Huggett 1998;Turner and Condron 2013;Vitousek and Farrington 1997).Much more recently,changes of plant nutrient-acquisition strategies with soil development have drawn attention,first with a conceptual model(Lambers et al.2008),which was subsequently confirmed with solid experimental data collected along the Jurien Bay chronosequence in south-western Australia(Zemunik et al.2015).The original conceptual model has since been amended,to explain why presumably less-effective mycorrhizal P-acquisition strategies coexist with more-effective strategies based on the release carboxylates(organic anions)(Lambers et al.2018).Mycorrhizas may not be effective at acquiring P from severely P-impoverished soils,but they do boost the defence against pathogens,which strongly affect the growth of non-mycorrhizal carboxylate-releasing Proteaceae(Albornoz et al.2017;Lalibertéet al.2015).What has received little or no attention is the P-acquisition strategies of species that are the first to colonize the bare regolith of the earliest stage of chronosequences(Figs 1 and 2).When the soil P availability is relatively high such as along the Jurien Bay chronosequence(Turner et al.2018),there is little point searching for specialized strategies,but along many chronosequences,i.e.not the case(Egli et al.2012;Richardson et al.2004;Zhou et al.2019).