The Role of Soil Microbes in Plant Invasions: Inhibition at Home and Facilitation Away?

生物学中一个尚未解答的主要问题是，为什么一些外来植物达到非常高的密度，并在它们被引入的社区造成严重破坏，但它们是原生社区的次要组成部分。这个项目是一个广泛的国际研究项目，旨在检验入侵植物成功的一个新兴假说--土壤真菌在它们的原生群落中控制外来入侵植物，而不是在这些外来物种入侵的群落中控制外来入侵植物。这项研究将在北美和欧亚大陆进行田间试验，以测试土壤真菌对斑点马尾藻(Centaurea Maculosa)和多叶植物大戟(Ehardorbia Esula)的影响，以及土壤真菌如何与人类造成的干扰相互作用。此外，为了推广这两种入侵者，将进行植物-土壤微生物反馈实验，以确定土壤正反馈和负反馈的强度在本地土壤和引进土壤之间的差异。这项研究有可能改变我们理解和应对外来植物入侵的方式。入侵生物每年造成数十亿美元的损失，美国在以化学和专业昆虫为基础的杂草控制上投入了大量资金。相反，如果土壤真菌在入侵成功中发挥了重要作用，那么我们打击杂草的努力就有理由重新定位。

A major unanswered question in biology is why some exotic plants attain very high densities and wreak havoc in communities where they are introduced, but are minor components of their native communities. This project is a broad international research program to test an emerging hypothesis for the success of invasive plants - that soil fungi control exotic invasive plants in their native communities, but not in the communities that these exotics invade. This research will involve field experiments in North America and Eurasia to test the effect of soil fungi on spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) and leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) and how soil fungi interact with human-caused disturbance. As well, to generalize beyond these two invaders, plant-soil microbial feedback experiments will be conducted to determine how the strength of positive and negative soil feedback differs between native and introduced soil. This research has the potential to change the way we understand and respond to exotic plant invasions. Invasive organisms cause billions of dollars of damage annually, and the United States invests substantial funding into chemical and specialist insect based control of weeds. Instead, if soil fungi play an important role in invasive success, a reorientation of our efforts to fight weeds would be warranted.