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, Alliaria petiolata, 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. This demonstrates a trade-off in trait investment that increases nutrient use efficiency as nutrient costs increase. Our results show that invasion-induced disruptions in the soil fungal community belowground can cascade to affect aboveground plant communities via shifts in physiological traits needed to maintain plant water and nutrient economies. These complex above-belowground linkages suggest that plant invasions should be evaluated at the system-level to fully understand and predict their impact on native plants and communities.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.