Theroles of beneficial and damaging plant-microbial interaction in invasion

生物多样性的保护取决于对决定物种丰富度及其相对丰度的机制的理解。这项发现资助所基于的基本科学问题是，为什么有些植物物种会成为入侵物种？人们提出了不同的理论来解释植物共存和入侵的机制，然而，研究表明，这些理论并不能解释为什么一些植物物种成为入侵者。此外，它们在很大程度上忽视了土壤生物群的作用。植物的很大一部分是生长在土壤中的根系，这是一种基质，是无数生物的栖息地，其中许多生物与植物相互作用。本建议侧重于这些相互作用的结果，特别是确定有利和有害相互作用之间平衡的作用，以及前者的作用在多大程度上阻碍了后者。据预测，这些相互作用的结果取决于植物性状，最终决定了物种的相对丰度和入侵能力。拟议的研究将集中在一个老领域的社区位于生态重要的过渡带之间的落叶和万年青森林的北方安大略和有益的微生物共生，这是广泛的植物。分子和经典技术相结合，将被用来调查是否入侵植物收到更大的病原体保护，从这些共生体比相对较少丰富的本地植物。这项研究将有一个地理学的组成部分，重点是植物微生物和植物植物在“家”和“离开”条件下的竞争相互作用。此外，它还将确定与外来入侵植物有关的微生物是否也可能被引入北美。预计这些结果将大大增加我们对土壤-植物-微生物相互作用在生态学中的作用及其管理潜力的理解，以防止生物多样性的丧失。

Conservation of biodiversity depends on understanding the mechanisms that determine species richness and their relative abundances. The basic scientific question on which this Discovery Grant is based is why do some plant species become invasive? Different theories have been proposed to explain the mechanisms of plant coexistence and invasion, however, research suggests that these do not explain why some plant species become invasive. In addition, they largely ignore the roles of the soil biota. A large part of a plant is its root system which grows in soil, a matrix that serves as habitat for a myriad of organisms, many of which interacting with plants. This proposal focuses on the outcomes of these interactions, particularly on identifying the role of equilibriums between beneficial and damaging interactions and the extent to which the role of the former is to keep the latter at bay. It is predicted that the outcomes of these interactions vary depending on plant traits, ultimately determining a species relative abundance and capacity to become invasive. The proposed research will focus on an old-field community located in the ecologically important transition zone between the deciduous and evergreen forest of Northern Ontario and on beneficial microbial symbioses, which are widespread among plants. A combination of molecular and classical techniques will be used to investigate whether invasive plants receive greater pathogen protection from these symbioses than relative less abundant native plants. The research will have a biogeographical component that focuses on plant-microbial and plant-plant competitive interactions under "home" and "away" conditions. Moreover it will determine if microbes associated with exotic invasive plants in their home range could also have been introduced in North America. It is expected that the results will significantly increase our understanding of the role of soil-plant-microbe interactions in ecology and their potential to be managed to prevent the loss of biodiversity.