Can fungal symbionts shift host niche dimensions to promote species coexistence?

Abstract

A central question in the study of biodiversity is, what mechanisms allow species to coexist? While most attention to this question has focused on antagonistic species interactions, positive species interactions have recently gained attention and may rival antagonisms in their importance. Grasses with vertically transmitted fungal endophytes provide useful systems for studying symbiont-­‐mediated species coexistence because the endophyte does not spread contagiously and the infection status of a plant can be experimentally controlled. Here, we examined whether the vertically transmitted fungal endophyte Neotyphodium sp. can shift the niche of the subalpine bluegrass Poa leptocoma so that it overlaps less with the niche of the ecologically similar grass Poa reflexa. P. leptocoma often grows in wetter environments closer to streams than P. reflexa, although the two species can grow intermixed in some environments. Our results show that the endophyte shifts the niche of P. leptocoma so that it overlaps less with the niche of P. reflexa, potentially decreasing interspecific competition. Symbiont-­‐mediated niche shifts were strong at the early seedling life history stage, but not at the adult plant stage. Our study provides support for the role of mutualisms in affecting the composition of ecological communities.

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