Effects of nutrient addition on endophyte-associated grass invasion in a long-term, old-field community experiment

Hager, Heather A.; Roloson, Jennifer L; Shukla, Kruti; Yurkonis, Kathryn A.; Newman, Jonathan A.

doi:10.1007/s00442-021-04933-8

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Additionally, N enrichment can suppress ecosystem-engineering plants such as nitrogen-fixing lupines, by selecting for less cooperative rhizobia mutualists and reducing plant fitness (Titus 2009;Weese et al 2015). Alternatively, N addition can cause leaf endophytes, such as Epichloë spp., to increasingly benefit host plants as energetic costs of the symbiosis are reduced, and production of N-rich alkaloids that protect plants from herbivory are increased (Lane et al 1997;Krauss et al 2007;Hager et al 2021). In successional ecosystems, such interactions with microbial symbionts could affect the dominance of ecosystem-engineering plants, indirectly changing facilitative or inhibitory interactions that influence rates or trajectories of early succession.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen addition and fungal symbiosis alter early dune plant succession

et al. 2023

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Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) enrichment can have complex effects on plant communities. In low-nutrient, primary successional systems such as sand dunes, N enrichment may alter the trajectory of plant community assembly or the dominance of foundational, ecosystem-engineering plants. Predicting the consequences of N enrichment may be complicated by plant interactions with microbial symbionts because increases in a limiting resource, such as N, could alter the costs and benefits of symbiosis. To evaluate the direct and interactive effects of microbial symbiosis and N addition on plant succession, we established a long-term field experiment in Michigan, USA, manipulating the presence of the symbiotic fungal endophyte Epichloë amarillans in Ammophila breviligulata, a dominant ecosystem-engineering dune grass species. From 2016 to 2020, we implemented N fertilization treatments (control, low, high) in a subset of the long-term experiment. N addition suppressed the accumulation of plant diversity over time mainly by reducing species richness of colonizing plants. However, this suppression occurred only when the endophyte was present in Ammophila . Although Epichloë enhanced Ammophila tiller density over time, N addition did not strongly interact with Epichloë symbiosis to influence vegetative growth of Ammophila . Instead, N addition directly altered plant community composition by increasing the abundance of efficient colonizers, especially C 4 grasses. In conclusion, hidden microbial symbionts can alter the consequences of N enrichment on plant primary succession. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00442-023-05362-5.

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