The effects of rainforest fragment area on the strength of plant-pathogen interactions.

ABSTRACT: Pathogenic interactions between fungi and plants facilitate plant species coexistence and tropical rainforest diversity. Such interactions, however, may be affected by forest fragmentation as fungi are susceptible to anthropogenic disturbance. To examine how fragmentation affects fungus-induced seed and seedling mortality, we sowed seeds of six plant species in soils collected from 21 forest fragments. We compared seedling establishment in unmanipulated soils to soils treated with fungicides. Fungicides increased germination of Toona ciliata seeds and decreased mortality of Syzygium rubicundum and Olea dioica seedlings. The fungus-induced mortality of one of these species, S. rubicundum, decreased with decreasing fragment size, indicating that its interactions with pathogenic fungi may wea

SUBMITTER: Viswanathan A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6371897 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature