U.S. flag An official website of the United States government.
Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

i

Associations between an Invasive Plant (Taeniatherum caput-medusae, Medusahead) and Soil Microbial Communities



Details

  • Journal Title:
    PLOS ONE
  • Personal Author:
  • NOAA Program & Office:
  • Description:
    Understanding plant-microbe relationships can be important for developing management strategies for invasive plants, particularly when these relationships interact with underlying variables, such as habitat type and seedbank density, to mediate control efforts. In a field study located in California, USA, we investigated how soil microbial communities differ across the invasion front of Taeniatherum caput-medusae (medusahead), an annual grass that has rapidly invaded most of the western USA. Plots were installed in habitats where medusahead invasion is typically successful (open grassland) and typically not successful (oak woodland). Medusahead was seeded into plots at a range of densities (from 0–50,000 seeds/m2) to simulate different levels of invasion. We found that bacterial and fungal soil community composition were significantly different between oak woodland and open grassland habitats. Specifically, ectomycorrhizal fungi were more abundant in oak woodlands while arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plant pathogens were more abundant in open grasslands. We did not find a direct effect of medusahead density on soil microbial communities across the simulated invasion front two seasons after medusahead were seeded into plots. Our results suggest that future medusahead management initiatives might consider plant-microbe interactions.
  • Source:
    PLOS ONE, 11(9), e0163930
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    1932-6203
  • Format:
  • Publisher:
  • Document Type:
  • License:
  • Rights Information:
    CC BY
  • Compliance:
    Library
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:b18da1c191901190d885874f180d7b0b1c2b16590e2d258de55c0a4ff8ebbae38e073c701cbff111f3cadd41d806847b17800e1af57aa15ded05a379167fad65
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 1.51 MB ]
ON THIS PAGE

The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.