Mix and Match: Transplanting symbiotic fungal partners across elevational gradients to gauge responses in migrating Elymus hosts
Abstract
Within the next century, ecosystems are projected to experience climate warming, with strong effects in mountain systems. Warming can alter species distributions, with documented upward migrations along elevation gradients. Species interactions may be important factors that promote species establishment during climate-induced migration. For plants, fungal interactions could help or hamper establishment, but little research has addressed this issue in mountain ecosystems. As plants move up-slope, they may bring fungal symbionts with them, encounter novel fungal consortia, or have the roles of their symbionts change. To investigate fungal symbionts during upward migration, I performed a field study that transplanted a low-elevation restricted grass species (Elymus elymoides) and broadly distributed grass species (E. trachycaulus) into low- and high-elevation sites. At each site, I imposed three soil treatments: sterile soil, fungal spores added from low-elevation sites, or fungal spores added from high-elevation sites, to create mismatches between plants and fungi (e.g., low elevation fungal spores added in high elevation sites). I hypothesized that plant performance would be reduced when the symbiont was mismatched with its abiotic environment. After two years, E. elymoides transplanted into high-elevation sites had a reduced survival when inoculated with low-elevation fungi relative to high elevation fungi or sterile soil, suggesting that low elevation fungal communities were pathogenic at high elevation. Unexpectedly, a fungal mismatch increased growth for both species in low- elevation sites. These results demonstrate the potential for climate change to induce mismatches between plants and fungal symbionts that could affect their future fitness and geographic distributions.
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References (19)
6 in Knowledge Hub, 13 external