TY - JOUR
T1 - Invasion-induced root–fungal disruptions alter plant water and nitrogen economies
AU - Bialic-Murphy, Lalasia
AU - Smith, Nicholas G.
AU - Voothuluru, Priya
AU - McElderry, Robert M.
AU - Roche, Morgan D.
AU - Cassidy, Steven T.
AU - Kivlin, Stephanie N.
AU - Kalisz, Susan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Despite widespread evidence that biological invasion influences both the biotic and abiotic soil environments, the extent to which these two pathways underpin the effects of invasion on plant traits and performance remains unknown. Leveraging a long-term (14-year) field experiment, we show that an allelochemical-producing invader affects plants through biotic mechanisms, altering the soil fungal community composition, with no apparent shifts in soil nutrient availability. Changes in belowground fungal communities resulted in high costs of nutrient uptake for native perennials and a shift in plant traits linked to their water and nutrient use efficiencies. Some plants in the invaded community compensate for the disruption of nutritional symbionts and reduced nutrient provisioning by sanctioning more nitrogen to photosynthesis and expending more water, which demonstrates a trade-off in trait investment. For the first time, we show that the disruption of belowground nutritional symbionts can drive plants towards alternative regions of their trait space in order to maintain water and nutrient economics.
AB - Despite widespread evidence that biological invasion influences both the biotic and abiotic soil environments, the extent to which these two pathways underpin the effects of invasion on plant traits and performance remains unknown. Leveraging a long-term (14-year) field experiment, we show that an allelochemical-producing invader affects plants through biotic mechanisms, altering the soil fungal community composition, with no apparent shifts in soil nutrient availability. Changes in belowground fungal communities resulted in high costs of nutrient uptake for native perennials and a shift in plant traits linked to their water and nutrient use efficiencies. Some plants in the invaded community compensate for the disruption of nutritional symbionts and reduced nutrient provisioning by sanctioning more nitrogen to photosynthesis and expending more water, which demonstrates a trade-off in trait investment. For the first time, we show that the disruption of belowground nutritional symbionts can drive plants towards alternative regions of their trait space in order to maintain water and nutrient economics.
KW - AM soil fungi and plant traits
KW - Allelopathy
KW - least cost theory
KW - mutualism disruption
KW - nutrient use efficiency
KW - plant invasion
KW - root–fungal symbionts
KW - soil microbial community
KW - water use efficiency
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102882155&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/ele.13724
DO - 10.1111/ele.13724
M3 - Letter
C2 - 33759325
AN - SCOPUS:85102882155
VL - 24
SP - 1145
EP - 1156
JO - Ecology Letters
JF - Ecology Letters
SN - 1461-023X
IS - 6
ER -