Plant-mycorrhizal fungal interaction networks: understanding their role in the resilience and adaptation of forests to climate change

在加拿大减缓和适应气候变化的努力中，加强多产和抗扰动能力强的森林的再生将是一项至关重要的战略。弹性森林的特点是地上和地下物种多样性，健康的生物和非生物相互作用，以及连通性，从而使它们能够抵抗破坏并从干扰中迅速恢复。然而，地上竞争是驱动资源吸收、物种共存、生产力和其他森林生态过程的主导机制的生态学理论，正在阻碍增加更新森林的复原力和适应能力的新应用的开发。缺乏对互助者的促进作用，特别是菌根真菌及其在树木之间形成的地下网络如何影响树木行为和森林生态系统后果的理解。这项研究的基本前提是，森林的复原力和适应能力植根于物种之间积极和消极的地上和地下相互作用的平衡。在这一框架内，我将重点讨论(1)成果、(2)机制和(3)森林生态系统中这些相互作用的驱动因素。

Enhancing regeneration of forests that are productive and resilient to perturbations will be a crucial strategy in Canada’s efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Resilient forests are characterized by above and belowground species diversity, healthy biotic and abiotic interactions, and connectivity, thus enabling them to resist damage and recover quickly from disturbance. However, ecological theory that aboveground competition is the dominant mechanism driving resource uptake, species coexistence, productivity and other forest ecological processes, is hindering the development of novel applications for increasing the resilience and adaptive capacity of regenerating forests. Lacking is an understanding of how facilitation by mutualists, in particular mycorrhizal fungi and the belowground networks they form among trees, influences tree behaviour and consequences for forest ecosystems. The underlying premise of this research is that resilience and adaptive capacity of forests is rooted in the balance of positive and negative above- and belowground interactions among species. Within this framework, I will focus on (i) outcomes, (ii) mechanisms and (iii) drivers of these interactions in forest ecosystems.