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

生物学中一个悬而未决的主要问题是，为什么一些外来植物的密度很高，在它们引入的群落中造成了严重破坏，而它们在本土群落中却只占很小的一部分。这个项目是一个广泛的国际研究项目，旨在测试一个关于入侵植物成功的新兴假设——土壤真菌控制外来入侵植物在其原生群落中，但不控制这些外来入侵植物入侵的群落。这项研究将包括在北美和欧亚大陆进行实地试验，以测试土壤真菌对斑点knapweed （Centaurea maculosa）和叶菜（Euphorbia esula）的影响，以及土壤真菌如何与人为干扰相互作用。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，以确定原生土壤和引入土壤之间正反馈和负反馈的强度如何不同。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，美国投入大量资金用于化学和专门的昆虫控制杂草。相反，如果土壤真菌在入侵成功中发挥了重要作用，那么我们就有必要重新定位与杂草作斗争的努力。

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.