Fig. 1

The root-soil characterisation of wheat and chickpea influenced by decaying root (DR). a Root exudation compounds (RECs) were collected from wheat and chickpea rhizosphere growing in the sterilised and non-sterilised soil under + and −DR. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) was based on Bray-Curtis distance between the relative abundance of 26 detected RECs. The percentage of variance explained by principal components 1 and 2 is shown in parenthesis. b REC degradation by rhizosphere microbiome. The 26 detected RECs were clustered into three chemical groups. The error bar is the least significant difference (LSD) at P = 0.05. c Decaying root channel occupation by the living root of wheat and chickpea. d Cumulative soil respiration by incubating the unplanted pots with + and −DR. ANOVA test at P < 0.05 showed that treatment effects on REC degradation and soil reparation at every measured time point were significant (*), but not significant for the root channel occupation (ns). Bars indicate the standard error at P = 0.05