Soil microbes mediate the effects of environmental variability on plant invasion

Zhang, X; M, van Kleunen; Chang, Chunguang; Liu, Yanjie

doi:10.1101/2021.11.01.466853

Cited by 8 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(37 reference statements)

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“…In other words, nutrient fluctuations affect alien dominance both directly and indirectly through herbivore influence. A similar mediation effect was observed with soil pathogenic fungi (Zhang et al, 2021). These two studies suggest that higher trophic levels do mediate alien invasion success under nutrient fluctuations.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Recent studies indicate that nutrient fluctuation may affect alien plant invasion both directly and indirectly through higher trophic levels (Gao et al, 2021; Li et al, 2022; Zhang et al, 2021). Our experimental evidence indeed supports this hypothesis, demonstrating that nitrogen fluctuation could enhance the dominance of the alien species in native communities, especially when AMF inoculation was absent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on plant invasion success driven by nitrogen fluctuations

Zhang,

Liu

2023

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Both enemies and mutualists play crucial roles in shaping plant invasion processes. Recent studies have suggested that resource fluctuations could indirectly promote plant invasion through higher trophic levels, such as enemies. However, the influence of mutualists like arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on plant invasion under nitrogen fluctuations remains untested. We conducted a pot mesocosm experiment using a three‐factorial experimental design to assess the individual and interactive effects of nitrogen availability, nitrogen fluctuation and AMF on invasive success of alien plants. We grew nine invasive alien species alongside five different native communities in pot mesocosms. These were then subjected to varied nitrogen availabilities (low vs. high), nitrogen fluctuations (constant vs. pulsed) and AMF presence or absence within a sterile substrate. We found that pulsed nitrogen supply increased the dominance of invasive alien species in low nitrogen availability, regardless of the presence or absence of AMF inoculation. However, in high nitrogen availability, pulsed nitrogen supply only enhanced this dominance in pots without AMF inoculation. This was tentatively evidenced by the three‐way interaction among nitrogen‐availability, nitrogen‐fluctuation and AMF‐inoculation treatments. Furthermore, the dominance promotion by nitrogen addition was greater than that by AMF inoculation. Synthesis and applications. Our findings present, for the first time, evidence that AMF may play a crucial role in mediating the promotion effects of nitrogen fluctuations on alien plant invasion. To better understand the invasion process of alien plants and evaluate their impact on native communities, future research should integrate abiotic and biotic drivers into a single framework. Furthermore, our findings underscore the importance of prioritizing habitats with higher nutrient availability and variability for protection against alien plant invasions.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on plant invasion success driven by nitrogen fluctuations

Zhang,

Liu

2023

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…In fact, a recent meta-analysis has shown that exotic plants are more capable of utilizing added nitrogen than native plants (Liu et al 2017). However, there are also studies that do not support this hypothesis, namely that increased nutrient availability suppresses the invasion of exotic plants (Li et al 2022b; Zhang et al 2021b). Therefore, more research is needed to test the impact of resource availability and uncover the causes of the many ways that invasive plants react to resource changes, which can have an impact on outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil nutrient limitation and natural enemies promote the establishment of alien species in native community

Xu¹,

Guo²,

Yan-feng³

et al. 2023

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Background and Aims The invasion of alien plant species poses a threat to native community’s composition and diversity. However, the invasiveness of alien plants and invasibility of native communities should be depended on the interactions between biotic and abiotic factors, such as natural enemies and soil nutrient availability. Methods We simulated the invasion of nine invasive plants into native plant communities with two levels of soil nutrient availability and natural enemies suppression. We explored how the biotic and abiotic factors affect the response of alien target species and the resistance of native communities to invasion. Results Enemy release (i.e., presence of enemy) increased biomass proportion of alien plants and decreased that of native community under without nutrient addition. Furthermore, the negative effect of enemy suppression on the evenness of native community and the root-to-shoot ratio of alien target species was greatest under nutrient addition. Conclusion Soil nutrient deficiency and natural enemies might promote the invasive success of alien species in native community, whereas nutrient addition and enemy suppression can better enhance the resistance of native plant communities to invasion.

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“…One of the reasons for the mixed findings could be that most studies did not consider interactions of the plants with other organisms (Copeland et al, 2016; Liu et al, 2017; Pintó‐Marijuan et al, 2017; Valliere et al, 2019). Recent studies found evidence that other trophic levels could indirectly mediate the responses of alien plants to nutrient availability and variation therein (Li et al, 2022; Zhang et al, 2021). However, whether drought can affect alien plant invasion via other trophic levels remains largely unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil mesofauna may buffer the negative effects of drought on alien plant invasion

et al. 2022

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1. Although many studies have tested the direct effects of drought on alien plant invasion, less is known about whether drought affects alien plant invasion indirectly via interactions of plants with other groups of organisms such as soil mesofauna.2. To test for such indirect effects, we grew single plants of nine naturalized alien target species in pot mesocosms with a community of five native grassland species under four combinations of two drought (well-watered vs. drought) and two soil-mesofauna inoculation (with vs. without) treatments.3. We found that drought decreased the absolute and the relative biomass production of the alien plants, and thus reduced their competitive strength in the native community. Drought also decreased the abundance of soil mesofauna, particularly soil mites, but did not affect the abundance and richness of soil herbivores. Soil-fauna inoculation did not affect the biomass of the alien plants but increased the biomass of the native plant community, and thereby decreased the relative biomass production of the alien plants. This increased invasion resistance due to soil fauna, however, tended (p = 0.09) to be stronger for plants growing under well-watered conditions than under drought. 4. Synthesis. Our multispecies experiment thus shows that soil fauna might help native communities to resist alien plant invasions, but that this effect might be weakened under drought. In other words, soil mesofauna may buffer the negative effects of drought on alien plant invasions.

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Soil microbes mediate the effects of environmental variability on plant invasion

Cited by 8 publications

References 36 publications

Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on plant invasion success driven by nitrogen fluctuations

Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on plant invasion success driven by nitrogen fluctuations

Soil nutrient limitation and natural enemies promote the establishment of alien species in native community

Soil mesofauna may buffer the negative effects of drought on alien plant invasion

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