1
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Diaz-Colunga J, Skwara A, Vila JCC, Bajic D, Sanchez A. Global epistasis and the emergence of function in microbial consortia. Cell 2024; 187:3108-3119.e30. [PMID: 38776921 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.04.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2023] [Revised: 12/06/2023] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
The many functions of microbial communities emerge from a complex web of interactions between organisms and their environment. This poses a significant obstacle to engineering microbial consortia, hindering our ability to harness the potential of microorganisms for biotechnological applications. In this study, we demonstrate that the collective effect of ecological interactions between microbes in a community can be captured by simple statistical models that predict how adding a new species to a community will affect its function. These predictive models mirror the patterns of global epistasis reported in genetics, and they can be quantitatively interpreted in terms of pairwise interactions between community members. Our results illuminate an unexplored path to quantitatively predicting the function of microbial consortia from their composition, paving the way to optimizing desirable community properties and bringing the tasks of predicting biological function at the genetic, organismal, and ecological scales under the same quantitative formalism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan Diaz-Colunga
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Microbial Biotechnology, National Center for Biotechnology CNB-CSIC, 28049 Madrid, Spain; Institute of Functional Biology and Genomics IBFG-CSIC, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain.
| | - Abigail Skwara
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Jean C C Vila
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Djordje Bajic
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, Delft 2628 CD, the Netherlands.
| | - Alvaro Sanchez
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Microbial Biotechnology, National Center for Biotechnology CNB-CSIC, 28049 Madrid, Spain; Institute of Functional Biology and Genomics IBFG-CSIC, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain.
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2
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Wilsey B, Martin L, Xu X, Isbell F, Polley HW. Biodiversity: Net primary productivity relationships are eliminated by invasive species dominance. Ecol Lett 2024; 27:e14342. [PMID: 38098152 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14342] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2023] [Revised: 11/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 01/31/2024]
Abstract
Experiments often find that net primary productivity (NPP) increases with species richness when native species are considered. However, relationships may be altered by exotic (non-native) species, which are hypothesized to reduce richness but increase productivity (i.e., 'invasion-diversity-productivity paradox'). We compared richness-NPP relationships using a comparison of exotic versus native-dominated sites across the central USA, and two experiments under common environments. Aboveground NPP was measured using peak biomass clipping in all three studies, and belowground NPP was measured in one study with root ingrowth cores using root-free soil. In all studies, there was a significantly positive relationship between NPP and richness across native species-dominated sites and plots, but no relationship across exotic-dominated ones. These results indicate that relationships between NPP and richness depend on whether native or exotic species are dominant, and that exotic species are 'breaking the rules', altering richness-productivity and richness-C stock relationships after invasion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian Wilsey
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology 251 Bessey Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
| | - Leanne Martin
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology 251 Bessey Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
| | - Xia Xu
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology 251 Bessey Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
| | | | - H Wayne Polley
- Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Temple, Texas, USA
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3
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Wang G, Burrill HM, Podzikowski LY, Eppinga MB, Zhang F, Zhang J, Schultz PA, Bever JD. Dilution of specialist pathogens drives productivity benefits from diversity in plant mixtures. Nat Commun 2023; 14:8417. [PMID: 38110413 PMCID: PMC10728191 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44253-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Productivity benefits from diversity can arise when compatible pathogen hosts are buffered by unrelated neighbors, diluting pathogen impacts. However, the generality of pathogen dilution has been controversial and rarely tested within biodiversity manipulations. Here, we test whether soil pathogen dilution generates diversity- productivity relationships using a field biodiversity-manipulation experiment, greenhouse assays, and feedback modeling. We find that the accumulation of specialist pathogens in monocultures decreases host plant yields and that pathogen dilution predicts plant productivity gains derived from diversity. Pathogen specialization predicts the strength of the negative feedback between plant species in greenhouse assays. These feedbacks significantly predict the overyielding measured in the field the following year. This relationship strengthens when accounting for the expected dilution of pathogens in mixtures. Using a feedback model, we corroborate that pathogen dilution drives overyielding. Combined empirical and theoretical evidence indicate that specialist pathogen dilution generates overyielding and suggests that the risk of losing productivity benefits from diversity may be highest where environmental change decouples plant-microbe interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guangzhou Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Nutrient Use and Management (SKL-NUM), College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
- Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA.
| | - Haley M Burrill
- Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
- The Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA
| | - Laura Y Podzikowski
- Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
| | - Maarten B Eppinga
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Fusuo Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Nutrient Use and Management (SKL-NUM), College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Junling Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Nutrient Use and Management (SKL-NUM), College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Peggy A Schultz
- Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
- Environmental Studies Program, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
| | - James D Bever
- Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA.
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA.
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4
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Sanchez A, Bajic D, Diaz-Colunga J, Skwara A, Vila JCC, Kuehn S. The community-function landscape of microbial consortia. Cell Syst 2023; 14:122-134. [PMID: 36796331 DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2022.12.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2022] [Revised: 10/17/2022] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 02/17/2023]
Abstract
Quantitatively linking the composition and function of microbial communities is a major aspiration of microbial ecology. Microbial community functions emerge from a complex web of molecular interactions between cells, which give rise to population-level interactions among strains and species. Incorporating this complexity into predictive models is highly challenging. Inspired by a similar problem in genetics of predicting quantitative phenotypes from genotypes, an ecological community-function (or structure-function) landscape could be defined that maps community composition and function. In this piece, we present an overview of our current understanding of these community landscapes, their uses, limitations, and open questions. We argue that exploiting the parallels between both landscapes could bring powerful predictive methodologies from evolution and genetics into ecology, providing a boost to our ability to engineer and optimize microbial consortia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alvaro Sanchez
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology & Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Microbial Biotechnology, CNB-CSIC, Campus de Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain.
| | - Djordje Bajic
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology & Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Juan Diaz-Colunga
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology & Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Abigail Skwara
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology & Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Jean C C Vila
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology & Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Seppe Kuehn
- Center for the Physics of Evolving Systems, The Unviersity of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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5
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Skwara A, Lemos‐Costa P, Miller ZR, Allesina S. Modelling ecological communities when composition is manipulated experimentally. Methods Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/2041-210x.14028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/05/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Abigail Skwara
- Department of Ecology & Evolution University of Chicago Chicago Illinois USA
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Yale University New Haven Connecticut USA
| | - Paula Lemos‐Costa
- Department of Ecology & Evolution University of Chicago Chicago Illinois USA
| | - Zachary R. Miller
- Department of Ecology & Evolution University of Chicago Chicago Illinois USA
| | - Stefano Allesina
- Department of Ecology & Evolution University of Chicago Chicago Illinois USA
- Northwestern Institute for Complex Systems Northwestern University Evanston Illinois USA
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6
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Effects of Invasive Plant Diversity on Soil Microbial Communities. DIVERSITY 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/d14110992] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Native plant communities can be invaded by different numbers of alien plant species or by the same number of alien plant species with different levels of evenness. However, little is known about how alien invasive plant species richness and evenness affect soil microbial communities. We constructed native herbaceous plant communities invaded by exotic plants with different richness (1, 2, 4 and 8 species) and evenness (high and low) and analyzed soil physico-chemical properties and the diversity and composition of soil fungal and bacterial communities by high-throughput Illumina sequencing. Overall, the species richness and evenness of invasive plants had no significant effect on bacterial and fungal alpha diversity (OTUs, Shannon, Simpson, Chao1 and ACE) or the soil physico-chemical properties. However, invasive species richness had a significant impact on the relative abundance of the most dominant fungi, Ascomycota and Bipolaris, and the dominant bacteria, Actinobacteriota, which increased with increasing invasive species richness. The relative abundance of the dominant microbial groups was significantly correlated with the relative abundance of some specific invasive plants in the community. This study sheds new light on the effects of plant co-invasion on soil microbial communities, which may help us understand the underlying mechanisms of multiple alien plant invasion processes from the perspective of soil microorganisms.
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7
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Campbell C, Russo L, Albert R, Buckling A, Shea K. Whole community invasions and the integration of novel ecosystems. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1010151. [PMID: 35671270 PMCID: PMC9173635 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2021] [Accepted: 04/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The impact of invasion by a single non-native species on the function and structure of ecological communities can be significant, and the effects can become more drastic–and harder to predict–when multiple species invade as a group. Here we modify a dynamic Boolean model of plant-pollinator community assembly to consider the invasion of native communities by multiple invasive species that are selected either randomly or such that the invaders constitute a stable community. We show that, compared to random invasion, whole community invasion leads to final stable communities (where the initial process of species turnover has given way to a static or near-static set of species in the community) including both native and non-native species that are larger, more likely to retain native species, and which experience smaller changes to the topological measures of nestedness and connectance. We consider the relationship between the prevalence of mutualistic interactions among native and invasive species in the final stable communities and demonstrate that mutualistic interactions may act as a buffer against significant disruptions to the native community.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin Campbell
- Department of Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Physics, University of Mount Union, Alliance, Ohio, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Laura Russo
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Réka Albert
- Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Angus Buckling
- Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, United Kingdom
| | - Katriona Shea
- Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America
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8
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Wang X, Wang J, Hu B, Zheng W, Li M, Shen Z, Yu F, Schmid B, Li M. Richness, not evenness, of invasive plant species promotes invasion success into native plant communities via selection effects. OIKOS 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.08966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Xue Wang
- Inst. of Wetland Ecology&Clone Ecology, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou Univ. Taizhou China
| | - Jiang Wang
- Inst. of Wetland Ecology&Clone Ecology, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou Univ. Taizhou China
| | - Bing Hu
- Inst. of Wetland Ecology&Clone Ecology, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou Univ. Taizhou China
| | - Wei‐Long Zheng
- Inst. of Wetland Ecology&Clone Ecology, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou Univ. Taizhou China
| | - Meng Li
- Inst. of Wetland Ecology&Clone Ecology, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou Univ. Taizhou China
| | - Zhi‐Xiang Shen
- Inst. of Wetland Ecology&Clone Ecology, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou Univ. Taizhou China
| | - Fei‐Hai Yu
- Inst. of Wetland Ecology&Clone Ecology, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou Univ. Taizhou China
| | - Bernhard Schmid
- Dept of Geography, Remote Sensing Laboratories, Univ. of Zürich Zürich Switzerland
| | - Mai‐He Li
- Forest Dynamics, Swiss Federal Research Inst. WSL Birmensdorf Switzerland
- Key Laboratory of Geographical Processes and Ecological Security in Changbai Mountains, Ministry of Education, School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal Univ. Changchun China
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9
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Ma F, Yang L, Lv T, Zuo Z, Zhao H, Fan S, Liu C, Yu D. The Biodiversity–Biomass Relationship of Aquatic Macrophytes Is Regulated by Water Depth: A Case Study of a Shallow Mesotrophic Lake in China. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.650001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The relationship between biodiversity and productivity (or biomass production) (BPR) has been a popular topic in macroecology and debated for decades. However, this relationship is poorly understood in macrophyte communities, and the mechanism of the BPR pattern of the aquatic macrophyte community is not clear. We investigated 78 aquatic macrophyte communities in a shallow mesotrophic freshwater lake in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China. We analyzed the relationship between biodiversity (species richness, diversity, and evenness indices) and community biomass, and the effects of water environments and interspecific interactions on biodiversity–biomass patterns. Unimodal patterns between community biomass and diversity indices instead of evenness indices are shown, and these indicate the importance of both the number and abundance of species when studying biodiversity–biomass patterns under mesotrophic conditions. These patterns were moderated by species identity biologically and water depth environmentally. However, water depth determined the distribution and growth of species with different life-forms as well as species identities through environmental filtering. These results demonstrate that water depth regulates the biodiversity–biomass pattern of the aquatic macrophyte community as a result of its effect on species identity and species distribution. Our study may provide useful information for conservation and restoration of macrophyte vegetation in shallow lakes through matching water depth and species or life-form combinations properly to reach high ecosystem functions and services.
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10
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Maynard DS, Miller ZR, Allesina S. Predicting coexistence in experimental ecological communities. Nat Ecol Evol 2019; 4:91-100. [DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-1059-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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11
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Release from Above- and Belowground Insect Herbivory Mediates Invasion Dynamics and Impact of an Exotic Plant. PLANTS 2019; 8:plants8120544. [PMID: 31779143 PMCID: PMC6963668 DOI: 10.3390/plants8120544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2019] [Revised: 11/19/2019] [Accepted: 11/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The enemy-release hypothesis is one of the most popular but also most discussed hypotheses to explain invasion success. However, there is a lack of explicit, experimental tests of predictions of the enemy-release hypothesis (ERH), particularly regarding the effects of above- and belowground herbivory. Long-term studies investigating the relative effect of herbivores on invasive vs. native plant species within a community are still lacking. Here, we report on a long-term field experiment in an old-field community, invaded by Solidago canadensis s. l., with exclusion of above- and belowground insect herbivores. We monitored population dynamics of the invader and changes in the diversity and functioning of the plant community across eight years. Above- and belowground insects favoured the establishment of the invasive plant species and thereby increased biomass and decreased diversity of the plant community. Effects of invertebrate herbivores on population dynamics of S. canadensis appeared after six years and increased over time, suggesting that long-term studies are needed to understand invasion dynamics and consequences for plant community structure. We suggest that the release from co-evolved trophic linkages is of importance not only for the effect of invasive species on ecosystems, but also for the functioning of novel species assemblages arising from climate change.
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12
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Dobson A, Richardson J, Blossey B. Effects of earthworms and white-tailed deer on roots, arbuscular mycorrhizae, and forest seedling performance. Ecology 2019; 101:e02903. [PMID: 31563154 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2019] [Revised: 07/24/2019] [Accepted: 08/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Changes in understory plant composition and biodiversity declines in northeastern North American forests are widespread. Preserving species and ecosystem function requires appropriate identification and management of important stressors. Coexistence of stressors, among them earthworm invasions and white-tailed deer, makes correct identification of mechanisms that cause diversity declines challenging. We used an established factorial experiment to assess survival and growth of native seedlings (Actaea pachypoda, Aquilegia canadensis, Cornus racemosa, Quercus rubra, and Prenanthes alba) in response to presence/absence of deer and earthworms. We expected deer and earthworms to reduce seedling survival and biomass, and we evaluated potential pathways to explain this impact (soil N and P concentrations and pools, root architecture, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi [AMF] colonization). We developed structural equation models (SEM) to identify specific pathways through which earthworms and deer were impacting plant species with different life histories. Seedling survival was not affected by our treatments nor the plant and soil variables we tested. Actaea biomass was smaller in earthworm-invaded plots, and with larger total N pools. In contrast, both deer and earthworm treatments were associated with lower soil nutrient concentrations, and earthworm-invaded plots had smaller N and extractable P pools. Actaea, Cornus, Prenanthes, and Quercus seedlings had a lower proportion of fine roots in earthworm-invaded plots, while fine roots in Aquilegia made up a higher proportion of the root system. AMF colonization in Quercus was reduced in sites colonized by earthworms, but AMF in other species were unaffected. Our SEMs showed high correlation among soil variables, but because we do not know which variables are drivers of this change and which are passengers, we can only conclude that they are changing together as deer and earthworms exert their respective influence. Different plant species responded in idiosyncratic ways to earthworm and deer effects on soil fertility, root architecture and limited effects on AMF colonization. While earthworm and deer-mediated changes to fine roots, soil nutrients, and AMF may lead to changes in plant performance over time, these changes rarely translated to lower plant performance in our seedlings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annise Dobson
- Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14853, USA.,Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511, USA
| | - Justin Richardson
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14853, USA.,Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst Center, Massachusetts, 01003, USA
| | - Bernd Blossey
- Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14853, USA
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13
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Magee TK, Blocksom KA, Herlihy AT, Nahlik AM. Characterizing nonnative plants in wetlands across the conterminous United States. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT 2019; 191:344. [PMID: 31222487 PMCID: PMC6586712 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-019-7317-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2018] [Accepted: 08/21/2018] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Nonnative plants are widely recognized as stressors to wetlands and other ecosystems. They may compete with native plant species or communities and alter ecosystem properties, which can affect ecological condition, posing challenges to resource managers. As part of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA), we characterized the status of nonnative plants in wetlands across the conterminous United States (US). Our primary goals were to (1) document the composition of nonnative taxa at 1138 NWCA sites sampled in 2011 and (2) estimate the areal extent of wetland under stress from nonnative plants within the NWCA 2011 sampled population of ~ 25 million ha of wetland (represented by 967 sampled probability sites and the NWCA survey design). A total of 443 unique nonnative taxa were observed, encompassing a species pool adapted to diverse ecological conditions. For individual sites, the number of nonnative taxa ranged from 0 to 29, and total absolute cover of nonnatives ranged from 0 to 160%. We devised the nonnative plant indicator (NNPI) as a categorical indicator of stress (low to very high) from the collective set of nonnative plant taxa occurring at a particular location, based on a decision matrix of exceedance values for nonnative richness, relative frequency, and relative cover. Wetland area of the sampled population occurring in each NNPI category was estimated at the scale of the conterminous US and within five large ecoregions and four broad wetland types. Potential stress from nonnative plants, as indicated by the NNPI category, was low for approximately 61% (~ 15.3 million ha), moderate for about 20% (~ 5.2 million ha), high for about 10% (~ 2.48 million ha), and very high for about 9% (~ 2.2 million ha) of the wetland area in the entire sampled population. Percent of wetland area with high and very high NNPI varied by ecoregional subpopulations: greater within interior and western ecoregions (~ 29 to 87%) than within ecoregions in the eastern half of the nation (~ 11%). Among wetland type subpopulations, greater percent of wetland area with high and very high NNPI was observed for herbaceous vs. woody types and for inland vs. estuarine types. Estimates of wetland area by NNPI categories are expected to be useful to policy makers or resource managers for prioritizing management actions by identifying situations where stress from nonnative plants is most extensive. We also considered four exploratory analyses aimed at providing ecological information useful in interpreting NNPI extent results. We conducted three population-scale analyses examining ecoregional and wetland type population means for (1) the three NNPI metrics, (2) absolute cover of growth-habit groups of nonnative plants, and (3) metrics describing human-mediated disturbance. Finally, we examined ecological relationships with site-level NNPI status using a random forest (RF) analysis with NNPI as the response variable and predictor variables including ecoregion, wetland type, and a variety of characteristics describing natural vegetation structure, environment, and human-mediated disturbance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teresa K Magee
- Office Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory, Western Ecology Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR, 97333, USA.
| | - Karen A Blocksom
- Office Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory, Western Ecology Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR, 97333, USA
| | - Alan T Herlihy
- Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
| | - Amanda M Nahlik
- Office Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory, Western Ecology Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR, 97333, USA
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14
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Wang G, Schultz P, Tipton A, Zhang J, Zhang F, Bever JD. Soil microbiome mediates positive plant diversity-productivity relationships in late successional grassland species. Ecol Lett 2019; 22:1221-1232. [PMID: 31131969 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13273] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2019] [Revised: 02/13/2019] [Accepted: 04/10/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Which processes drive the productivity benefits of biodiversity remain a critical, but unanswered question in ecology. We tested whether the soil microbiome mediates the diversity-productivity relationships among late successional plant species. We found that productivity increased with plant richness in diverse soil communities, but not with low-diversity mixtures of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi or in pasteurised soils. Diversity-interaction modelling revealed that pairwise interactions among species best explained the positive diversity-productivity relationships, and that transgressive overyielding resulting from positive complementarity was only observed with the late successional soil microbiome, which was both the most diverse and exhibited the strongest community differentiation among plant species. We found evidence that both dilution/suppression from host-specific pathogens and microbiome-mediated resource partitioning contributed to positive diversity-productivity relationships and overyielding. Our results suggest that re-establishment of a diverse, late successional soil microbiome may be critical to the restoration of the functional benefits of plant diversity following anthropogenic disturbance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guangzhou Wang
- Centre for Resources, Environment and Food Security, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.,Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.,Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
| | - Peggy Schultz
- Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
| | - Alice Tipton
- Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA.,Department of Science, Technology & Mathematics, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, MO, 65101, USA
| | - Junling Zhang
- Centre for Resources, Environment and Food Security, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.,Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China
| | - Fusuo Zhang
- Centre for Resources, Environment and Food Security, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China.,Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, People's Republic of China
| | - James D Bever
- Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA.,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
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15
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Damasceno G, Souza L, Pivello VR, Gorgone-Barbosa E, Giroldo PZ, Fidelis A. Impact of invasive grasses on Cerrado under natural regeneration. Biol Invasions 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s10530-018-1800-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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16
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Liu XA, Peng Y, Li JJ, Peng PH. Enhanced shoot investment makes invasive plants exhibit growth advantages in high nitrogen conditions. BRAZ J BIOL 2018. [PMID: 29538482 DOI: 10.1590/1519-6984.169578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Resource amendments commonly promote plant invasions, raising concerns over the potential consequences of nitrogen (N) deposition; however, it is unclear whether invaders will benefit from N deposition more than natives. Growth is among the most fundamental inherent traits of plants and thus good invaders may have superior growth advantages in response to resource amendments. We compared the growth and allocation between invasive and native plants in different N regimes including controls (ambient N concentrations). We found that invasive plants always grew much larger than native plants in varying N conditions, regardless of growth- or phylogeny-based analyses, and that the former allocated more biomass to shoots than the latter. Although N addition enhanced the growth of invasive plants, this enhancement did not increase with increasing N addition. Across invasive and native species, changes in shoot biomass allocation were positively correlated with changes in whole-plant biomass; and the slope of this relationship was greater in invasive plants than native plants. These findings suggest that enhanced shoot investment makes invasive plants retain a growth advantage in high N conditions relative to natives, and also highlight that future N deposition may increase the risks of plant invasions.
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Affiliation(s)
- X A Liu
- Ecological Resources and Landscape Research Institute, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, CHN, China
| | - Y Peng
- Ecological Resources and Landscape Research Institute, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, CHN, China
| | - J J Li
- Ecological Resources and Landscape Research Institute, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, CHN, China
| | - P H Peng
- Ecological Resources and Landscape Research Institute, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, CHN, China
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17
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Interactions count: plant origin, herbivory and disturbance jointly explain seedling recruitment and community structure. Sci Rep 2017; 7:8288. [PMID: 28811574 PMCID: PMC5557803 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-08401-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2017] [Accepted: 07/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Herbivory and disturbance are major drivers of biological invasions, but it is unclear how they interact to determine exotic vs. native seedling recruitment and what consequences arise for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Previous studies neglected the roles of different, potentially interacting, guilds of generalist herbivores such as rodents and gastropods. We therefore set up a full-factorial rodent exclusion x gastropod exclusion x disturbance x seed-addition experiment in a grassland community in Central Germany and measured early seedling recruitment, as well as species richness, species composition and aboveground biomass. Gastropod herbivory reduced the positive effect of disturbance on seedling recruitment, particularly for exotic species. Rodent herbivory had weak positive effects on seedling recruitment at undisturbed sites, irrespective of species origin. This effect was likely driven by their strong negative effect on productivity. Interactive effects between both herbivore guilds became only evident for species richness and composition. How many species established themselves depended on disturbance, but was independent of species origin. The fewer exotic species that established themselves increased productivity to a stronger extent compared to native species. Our study highlights that joint effects of disturbance, herbivory and species origin shape early recruitment, while they only weakly affect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
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