Native plants fare better against an introduced competitor with native microbes and lower nitrogen availability.

ABSTRACT: While the soil environment is generally acknowledged as playing a role in plant competition, the relative importance of soil resources and soil microbes in determining outcomes of competition between native and exotic plants has rarely been tested. Resilience of plant communities to invasion by exotic species may depend on the extent to which native and exotic plant performance are mediated by abiotic and biotic components of the soil. We used a greenhouse experiment to compare performance of two native prairie plant species and one exotic species, when grown in intraspecific competition and when each native was grown in interspecific competition with the exotic species, in the presence and absence of a native prairie soil community, and when nitrogen availability was elevated or was maint

SUBMITTER: Gaya Shivega W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5402526 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature