Microbial Communities of a Field Plant-Soil Feedback Experiment
Class
Article
Graduation Year
2019
College
S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
Department
Wildland Resources Department
Faculty Mentor
Andrew Kulmatiski
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
Despite the importance of plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) in plant growth and community composition patterns, PSF research is largely performed in short-term greenhouse experiments. We developed a long-term, common garden field experiment to determine the PSF values of six native and six non-native plants of the intermountain west. PSFs improved our ability to predict plant cover and plant biomass in communities. However, the mechanisms behind PSFs are largely unknown. Microbial interactions with plants are a likely driver of plant-soil feedbacks, but their role in PSFs is poorly understood. We performed pyrosequencing of microbial communities under 65 plant-soil feedback plots. Although mechanisms driving PSFs was not determined, microbial communities under different plant species were found to be distinct.
Location
Room 154
Start Date
4-13-2017 12:00 PM
End Date
4-13-2017 1:15 PM
Microbial Communities of a Field Plant-Soil Feedback Experiment
Room 154
Despite the importance of plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) in plant growth and community composition patterns, PSF research is largely performed in short-term greenhouse experiments. We developed a long-term, common garden field experiment to determine the PSF values of six native and six non-native plants of the intermountain west. PSFs improved our ability to predict plant cover and plant biomass in communities. However, the mechanisms behind PSFs are largely unknown. Microbial interactions with plants are a likely driver of plant-soil feedbacks, but their role in PSFs is poorly understood. We performed pyrosequencing of microbial communities under 65 plant-soil feedback plots. Although mechanisms driving PSFs was not determined, microbial communities under different plant species were found to be distinct.