Symbiotic bacteria as a determinant of plant community structure and plant productivity in dune grassland

Symbiotic bacteria as a determinant of plant community structure and plant productivity in dune grassland.

Symbiotic interactions are thought to play a key role in ecosystems. Empirical evidence for the impact of symbiotic bacteria on plant communities is, however, extremely scarce because of experimental constraints. Here, in three complementary experiments, we show that nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria act as a determinant of plant community structure and diversity. Grassland microcosms inoculate...

Interisland Variability of Dune Plant Community Structure

INTERISLAND VARIABILITY OF DUNE PLANT COMMUNITY STRUCTURE ON VIRGINIA’S BARRIER ISLANDS Justin K. Shafer Old Dominion University, 2010 Director: Dr. Frank P. Day The barrier islands of the Virginia Coast Reserve LTER site provide an opportunity to study interisland variability of dune plant communities. My research focused on the variation in biomass and diversity of communities among islands a...

Editorial: Grassland-Invertebrate Interactions: Plant Productivity, Resilience and Community Dynamics

The mycorrhizal contribution to plant productivity, plant nutrition and soil structure in experimental grassland.

Previous studies have shown that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can influence plant diversity and ecosystem productivity. However, little is known about the effects of AMF and different AMF taxa on other important community properties such as nutrient acquisition, plant survival and soil structure. We established experimental grassland microcosms and tested the impact of AMF and of differen...

Hierarchical organization of a Sardinian sand dune plant community

Coastal sand dunes have attracted the attention of plant ecologists for over a century, but they have largely relied on correlations to explain dune plant community organization. We examined long-standing hypotheses experimentally that sand binding, inter-specific interactions, abiotic factors and seedling recruitment are drivers of sand dune plant community structure in Sardinia, Italy. Removi...