Invasive Plant Suppresses the Growth of Native Tree Seedlings by Disrupting Belowground Mutualisms

By K. Stinson, Stuart A. Campbell, J. Powell, B. Wolfe, R. Callaway, G. Thelen, S. Hallett, D. Prati, J. Klironomos. PLoS Biology, 2006

849 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The impact of exotic species on native organisms is widely acknowledged, but poorly understood. Very few studies have empirically investigated how invading plants may alter delicate ecological interactions among resident species in the invaded range. We present novel evidence that antifungal phytochemistry of the invasive plant, Alliaria petiolata, a European invader of North American forests, suppresses native plant growth by disrupting mutualistic associations between native canopy tree seedlings and belowground arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Our results elucidate an indirect mechanism by which invasive plants can impact native flora, and may help explain how this plant successfully invades relatively undisturbed forest habitat.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d6200e00b72574462741d8c5508866fbd83b20be

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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

In Plant Science

Citations in the corpus

Ready or Not, Garlic Mustard Is Moving In: Alliaria petiolata as a Member of Eastern North American Forests (2008, background): “…of garlic mustard to disrupt mycorrhizal associations and subsequently suppress native plant growth represents a novel mechanism by which an invasive plant can disrupt native communities (Stinson et al. 2006) and an important pathway by which garlic mustard may be altering forest regeneration.”
Progress toward understanding the ecological impacts of nonnative species (2013, background): “The most common examples come from plant allelopathy (Callaway and Ridenour 2004, Stinson et al. 2006, Callaway et al. 2008).”
Low allelochemical concentrations detected in garlic mustard-invaded forest soils inhibit fungal growth and AMF spore germination (2011, background): “…AMF species to test spore germination inhibition (Gigaspora rosea, Roberts and Anderson 2001; unidentified species of Glomus and Acaulospora, Stinson et al. 2006; and Glomus clarum, here) and varied chemical bioassays, all show that the exposure to allelochemicals produced by garlic mustard…”
Invasive species: “back-seat drivers” of ecosystem change? (2012, neutral): “However, Alliaria also releases allelochemicals that suppress mycorrhizal fungi (Roberts and Anderson 2001; Wolfe et al. 2008) and drive declines in mycorrhizae and native plants that rely on the mycorrhizal symbiosis (Callaway et al. 2008; Stinson et al. 2006).”
Current mismatch between research and conservation efforts: The need to study co-occurring invasive plant species (2013, background): “Other invasive plants are allelopathic, disrupting mutualistic relationships and decreasing native plant growth rates (Stinson et al., 2006).”
Plant–soil feedback induces shifts in biomass allocation in the invasive plant Chromolaena odorata (2009, background): “This is certainly not the only soil-borne influence on plant invasiveness, as exotic plants may, for example, disrupt mycorrhizal communities (Stinson et al. 2006) and alter decomposition (Kourtev, Ehrenfeld & Haggblom 2003) in the non-native range.”
Effects of biological invasions on forest carbon sequestration (2010, background): “, 2009), for example, through disruption of interaction networks previously dominated by native species (e.g. disruption of native tree mycorrhizal mutualists by an invasive herb; Wolfe & Klironomos, 2005; Stinson et al., 2006; see also Tylianakis et al., 2008).”
Manipulating the soil microbiome to increase soil health and plant fertility (2012, background): “success of native plants (Klironomos 2002; Stinson et al. 2006).”
The invasive plant Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) inhibits ectomycorrhizal fungi in its introduced range (2008, background): “petiolata on mycorrhizal propagules in the soil or resynthesized mycorrhizal associations of seedlings in the glasshouse (Roberts & Anderson 2001; Stinson et al. 2006).”
Fungal community homogenization, shift in dominant trophic guild, and appearance of novel taxa with biotic invasion (2017, background): “AMF diversity tends to decrease as a result of garlic mustard invasion (Barto et al. 2011, Lankau 2011, Lankau and Nodurft 2013), and loss of AMF selects for native plants with low specificity for particular AMF species (Lankau and Nodurft 2013) and reduced mycorrhizal dependencies (Stinson et al. 2”
Enhanced allelopathy and competitive ability of invasive plant Solidago canadensis in its introduced range (2013, background): “Allelopathy has both defensive and competitive characteristics in many invasive plants (Hubbell et al. 1983; Watling et al. 2011; Mallik and Pellissier 2000; Bais et al. 2003; Callaway and Ridenour 2004; Prati and Bossdorf 2004; Stinson et al. 2006; Jarchow et al. 2009).”
Two co-occurring invasive woody shrubs alter soil properties and promote subdominant invasive species (2014, background): “) Cavara and Grande secretes secondary allelopathic compounds that decrease the abundance and diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which reduces the growth of native plants that depend on these beneficial soil organisms (Stinson et al. 2006).”