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Legume germination is delayed in dry soils and in sterile soils devoid of microbial mutualists: Species‐specific implications for upward range expansions

Climate change is affecting species and their mutualists and can lead to the weakening or loss of important interspecific interactions. Through independent shifts in partner phenology and distribution, climatic stress can separate mutualists temporally or spatially, leading to alterations in partner...

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Autores principales: Keeler, Andrea M., Rafferty, Nicole E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9398887/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36016820
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9186
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author Keeler, Andrea M.
Rafferty, Nicole E.
author_facet Keeler, Andrea M.
Rafferty, Nicole E.
author_sort Keeler, Andrea M.
collection PubMed
description Climate change is affecting species and their mutualists and can lead to the weakening or loss of important interspecific interactions. Through independent shifts in partner phenology and distribution, climatic stress can separate mutualists temporally or spatially, leading to alterations in partner functional traits and fitness. Here, we explored the effects of the loss of microbial mutualists on legume germination success and phenology. In particular, we assessed the effects of mutualism loss via soil sterilization, increased drought, and introduction to novel soils found beyond the current distributions of two focal legume species in subalpine environments. Through common garden experiments in controlled environments, we found evidence that soil sterilization (and consequent microbial absence) and dry soils caused species‐specific phenological delays of 2–5 weeks in germination, likely as a result of interaction loss between legumes and specialized germination‐promoting soil microbes, such as mutualistic rhizobia. Delays in germination caused by a mismatch between legumes and beneficial microbes could negatively affect legume fitness through increased plant–plant competition later in the season. Additionally, we found evidence of the presence of beneficial microbes beyond the current elevational range of one of our focal legumes, which may allow for expansion of the leading edge, although harsh abiotic factors in the alpine may hinder this. Alterations in the strength of soil microbe‐legume mutualisms may lead to reduced fitness and altered demography for both soil microbes and legumes.
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spelling pubmed-93988872022-08-24 Legume germination is delayed in dry soils and in sterile soils devoid of microbial mutualists: Species‐specific implications for upward range expansions Keeler, Andrea M. Rafferty, Nicole E. Ecol Evol Research Articles Climate change is affecting species and their mutualists and can lead to the weakening or loss of important interspecific interactions. Through independent shifts in partner phenology and distribution, climatic stress can separate mutualists temporally or spatially, leading to alterations in partner functional traits and fitness. Here, we explored the effects of the loss of microbial mutualists on legume germination success and phenology. In particular, we assessed the effects of mutualism loss via soil sterilization, increased drought, and introduction to novel soils found beyond the current distributions of two focal legume species in subalpine environments. Through common garden experiments in controlled environments, we found evidence that soil sterilization (and consequent microbial absence) and dry soils caused species‐specific phenological delays of 2–5 weeks in germination, likely as a result of interaction loss between legumes and specialized germination‐promoting soil microbes, such as mutualistic rhizobia. Delays in germination caused by a mismatch between legumes and beneficial microbes could negatively affect legume fitness through increased plant–plant competition later in the season. Additionally, we found evidence of the presence of beneficial microbes beyond the current elevational range of one of our focal legumes, which may allow for expansion of the leading edge, although harsh abiotic factors in the alpine may hinder this. Alterations in the strength of soil microbe‐legume mutualisms may lead to reduced fitness and altered demography for both soil microbes and legumes. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-08-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9398887/ /pubmed/36016820 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9186 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Keeler, Andrea M.
Rafferty, Nicole E.
Legume germination is delayed in dry soils and in sterile soils devoid of microbial mutualists: Species‐specific implications for upward range expansions
title Legume germination is delayed in dry soils and in sterile soils devoid of microbial mutualists: Species‐specific implications for upward range expansions
title_full Legume germination is delayed in dry soils and in sterile soils devoid of microbial mutualists: Species‐specific implications for upward range expansions
title_fullStr Legume germination is delayed in dry soils and in sterile soils devoid of microbial mutualists: Species‐specific implications for upward range expansions
title_full_unstemmed Legume germination is delayed in dry soils and in sterile soils devoid of microbial mutualists: Species‐specific implications for upward range expansions
title_short Legume germination is delayed in dry soils and in sterile soils devoid of microbial mutualists: Species‐specific implications for upward range expansions
title_sort legume germination is delayed in dry soils and in sterile soils devoid of microbial mutualists: species‐specific implications for upward range expansions
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9398887/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36016820
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9186
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