The Role of Mycorrhizae in Mediating Interactions in Native and Invaded Plant Communities in Intermountain Praire

9726829 Callaway和Zabinski高度侵略性的入侵杂草，Centaurea maculosa，似乎利用了一种不寻常的机制来排除山间草原草原上的原生丛生草。 这种相互作用的基础是通过菌根真菌的地下相互作用。本项目将评估这些真菌作为介质的作用， 矢车菊通过优先将碳从原生草转移到这种杂草。建议的研究包括一个综合的序列温室，普通花园，和现场实验（1）测试的一般性间接之间的相互作用的菌根真菌和植物物种原产于山间草原的入侵物种的存在和不存在，（2）以确定真菌介导的相互作用的机制和（3）以确定这种相互作用在现场的生态相关性。

9726829 Callaway and Zabinski The highly aggressive invasive weed, Centaurea maculosa, appears to utilize an unusual mechanism to exclude a native bunchgrass in grasslands of the Intermountain prairie. The basis of this interaction is tied to underground interactions via mycorrhizal fungi. This project will evaluate the role of these fungi in acting as mediators of the establishment of Centaurea by preferentially transferring carbon from native grasses to this weed. The proposed research includes an integrated sequence of greenhouse, common garden, and field experiments to (1) test the generality of indirect interactions between mycorrhizal fungi and plant species native to the Intermountain grasslands in the presence and absence of the invasive species, (2) to determine the mechanism of the fungi-mediated interaction and (3) to determine the ecological relevance of such interactions in the field.