Plant–soil interactions in the native range of two congeneric species with contrasting invasive success

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare plant–soil interactions in the native range of two congeneric European species differing in their invasive success in the world: a globally invasive Cirsium vulgare and non-invasive C. oleraceum. We assessed changes in soil nutrients and soil biota following soil conditioning by each species and compared performance of plants grown in self-conditioned and unconditioned soil, from which all, some or no biota was excluded. The invasive species depleted more nutrients than the non-invasive species and coped better with altered nutrient levels. The invasive species had higher seedling establishment which benefited from the presence of unconditioned biota transferred by soil filtrate. Biomass of both species increased in soil with self-conditioned soil filtrate and decreased in soil with self-conditioned whole-soil inoculum compared to unconditioned filtrate and inoculum. However, the increase was smaller and the decrease greater for the invasive species. The invasive species allocated less biomass to roots when associated with harmful biota, reducing negative effects of the biota on its performance. The results show that in the native range the invasive species is more limited by self-conditioned pathogens and benefits more from unconditioned mutualists and thus may benefit more from loss of effectively specialized soil biota in a secondary range. Our study highlights the utility of detailed plant-soil feedback research in species native range for understanding factors regulating species performance in their native range and pinpointing the types of biota involved in their regulation.

Biochemical characterization and mycorrhizal fungal community of plant species in the Brazilian seasonal dry forest

“…However, it creates two dissimilar pathways: (i) positive feedback between the tropical Cambisol and C. madagascariensis ; and (ii) negative feedback between the AMF community and the tropical Cambisol. These results agree with previous work [6, 9, 14, 16, 38] that reported positive plant–soil and negative AMF‐soil feedbacks in the root zone of IAPS, such as Acacia spp., C. madagascariensis, Parkinsonia aculeata , Pinus taeda, Prosopis juliflora , and Sesbania virgata .…”

“…Other studies have focused on the host-AMF pairing specificity [7], and how an IAPS can affect the structure and abundance of AMF spores [8]. This work focused on the impacts of C. madagascariensis on AMF community, and to investigate how the AMF assemblage may interact with soil biochemical properties to contribute to the invader performance [9].…”