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Soil biota can determine plant invasiveness, yet biogeographical comparisons of microbial community composition and function across ranges are rare. We compared interactions between Conyza canadensis, a global plant invader, and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in 17 plant populations in each native and non-native range spanning similar climate and soil fertility gradients. We then grew seedlings in the greenhouse inoculated with AM fungi from the native range. In the field, Conyza plants were larger, more fecund, and associated with a richer community of more closely related AM fungal taxa in the non-native range. Fungal taxa that were more abundant in the non-native range also correlated positively with plant biomass, whereas taxa that were more abundant in the native range appeared parasitic. These patterns persisted when populations from both ranges were grown together in a greenhouse; non-native populations cultured a richer and more diverse AM fungal community and selected AM fungi that appeared to be more mutualistic. Our results provide experimental support for evolution toward enhanced mutualism in non-native ranges. Such novel relationships and the rapid evolution of mutualisms may contribute to the disproportionate abundance and impact of some non-native plant species.

Prokaryotic communities play key roles in biogeochemical transformation and cycling of nutrients in the productive mangrove ecosystem. In this study, the vertical distribution of rhizosphere bacteria was evaluated by profiling the bacterial diversity and community structure in the rhizospheres of four mangrove species (Sonneratia alba, Rhizophora mucronata, Ceriops tagal and Avicennia marina) from Mida Creek and Gazi Bay, Kenya, using DNA-metabarcoding. Alpha diversity was not significantly different between sites, but, significantly higher in the rhizospheres of S. alba and R. mucronata in Gazi Bay than in Mida Creek. Chemical parameters of the mangrove sediments significantly correlated inversely with alpha diversity metrics. The bacterial community structure was significantly differentiated by geographical location, mangrove species and sampling depth, however, differences in mangrove species and sediment chemical parameters explained more the variation in bacterial community structure. Proteobacteria (mainly Deltaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria) was the dominant phylum while the families Desulfobacteraceae, Pirellulaceae and Syntrophobacteraceae were dominant in both study sites and across all mangrove species. Constrained redundancy analysis indicated that calcium, potassium, magnesium, electrical conductivity, pH, nitrogen, sodium, carbon and salinity contributed significantly to the species–environment relationship. Predicted functional profiling using PICRUSt2 revealed that pathways for sulfur and carbon metabolism were significantly enriched in Gazi Bay than Mida Creek. Overall, the results indicate that bacterial community composition and their potential function are influenced by mangrove species and a fluctuating influx of nutrients in the mangrove ecosystems of Gazi Bay and Mida Creek.

We evaluated the dynamics of land use in the Bouba Ndjidda National Park (BNNP) and adjacent areas, in northern Cameroon. Using a maximum likelihood supervised classification of satellite images from 1990 to 2016, coupled with field and a socio-economic survey, we performed a robust land-use classification. Between 1990 and 2016, the area included eight classes of land use, with the largest in 1990 being the woody savannah (42.9%) followed by the gallery forest (20.2%) and the clear forest (16.3%). Between 1990 and 1999, the gallery forest lost 64.8% of its area mostly to the benefit of woody savannahs. Between 1999 and 2016, the largest loss of area was that of the clear forest, which decreased generally by 43.2% in favor of woody savannah. Rates of increase of crop field areas were 59.6% and 78.8% respectively for the periods of 1990 to 1999 and 1999 to 2016 to the detriment of woody savannahs. We attribute the changes in land use observed mainly to the increasing human population and associated agriculture, overgrazing, fuelwood harvesting and bush fires. The exploitation of non-timber forest products and climatic factors may also have changed the vegetation cover. We recommend the implementation of farming techniques with low impact on the environment such as agroforestry.

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