The future of plant-fungal symbioses along elevational gradients

Abstract

Plant-fungal symbioses affect the growth and fitness of most plants on earth. Moreover, they can structure plant community composition and feedback to affect ecosystem-level properties such as carbon storage. As climate change drives species distribution shifts in plants, the fungi may or may not co-disperse along with their symbiotic plant species. Thus, the future of these relationships could look very different, and owing to the potential community and ecosystem-level ramifications, it is important to understand the consequences of these potential plant-symbiont mismatches. We simulated the species distribution shift of Festuca thurberi and Festuca saximontana expected under climate warming in the next century and manipulated the fungal communities of plants at high and low elevation. We found that broadly distributed Festuca saximontana will perform poorly if associated with fungi from low elevation, regardless of which elevation it is grown in. Festuca thurberi on the other hand, will perform better at all elevations if they co-disperse with their fungi from lower elevations. This difference in performance could disrupt current montane plant communities and lead to a change in carbon storage and nutrient cycling in these ecosystems.

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