Invasion-induced root-fungal disruptions alter plant water and nitrogen economies

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><br> <jats:p>Despite widespread evidence that biological invasion influences the biotic and abiotic soil environments, the extent to which each of these pathways underpins the effects of invasion on native plant traits and performance is unknown. Leveraging a long-term (14-yr) manipulative field experiment, we show that an allelochemical-producing invader, <jats:italic>Alliaria petiolata</jats:italic>, affects native plants through biotic mechanisms, altering the soil fungal community composition, with no apparent shifts in soil nutrient availability. These changes in belowground soil fungal communities resulted in a high cost of resource uptake for native forest perennial herbs and a shift in functional traits linked to their carbon and nutrient economies. Furthermore, we illustrate that some species in the invaded community compensate for high nutrient costs by reducing nutrient uptake and maintaining photosynthesis by expending more water. Th