Author : Colin G. Cope
Release : 2018
Genre : Animal-plant relationships
Kind : eBook
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Book Synopsis Understanding Above- and Belowground Interactions Within Invasion Biology by : Colin G. Cope

Download or read book Understanding Above- and Belowground Interactions Within Invasion Biology written by Colin G. Cope. This book was released on 2018. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Above- and belowground interactions play a significant role in forest communities. Individually, white-tailed deer, invasive earthworms, and invasive garlic mustard have all been shown to have a significant influence on forest communities. My dissertation has taken a functional group approach to understand how these three groups interact, and how those interactions effect both the above- and belowground community. Invasive earthworms can be classified into four functional groups on the basis of their feeding/burrowing mode. Anecic are large earthworms that create vertical burrows, epigeic are small litter dwelling earthworms, endogeic are small soil dwelling earthworms, and epi-endogeic are large earthworms that can be found in both the soil and leaf litter. Therefore, I predicted that the functional groups would interact differently with other organisms (e.g. deer, soil microbes). I found that the presence of white-tailed deer significantly increased the abundance of the endogeic functional group of earthworms, while the presence of deer had no effect on the other functional groups. This suggests the different functional groups respond differently to the presence of deer. Additionally, I found that deer presence and earthworm presence and/or abundance significantly altered bacteria and fungal community composition. In conjunction, I also found that fungal community richness was positively correlated to plant community richness. To investigate how interactions among multiple invaders influence plant performance, I conducted a potted experiment involving two invasive species, Lumbricus terrestris and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), and a native spring ephemeral. In addition, I utilized observational field data collected from Cleveland Metroparks to compare experimental and observation results. In the field I found that garlic mustard significantly decreased mayapple cover, and that plots that also have earthworms reduce this negative effect. However, within the potted experiment I found that the presence of both of these invaders reduced mayapple biomass. Thus interactions with this anecic invader were highly context-dependent. Overall, my dissertation highlights the importance of considering functional feeding groups when studying interactions among multiple species, especially for invasive earthworms.