Microbial facilitation at the leading edge of plant species distributional shifts

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

In high-elevation mountain environments, the ranges of many alpine plant species are limited by a short and cold growing season. Beyond these limits no vascular plants survive, but microbial life thrives. Warmer spring temperatures and earlier snowmelt could allow alpine plant species to expand into these unvegetated areas. This research will examine whether some plant species will benefit from soil microbes as they expand their distribution in response to climate change. The interactions of plants with the high elevation soil microbes will be examined to test whether microbes increase the ability of plants to withstand cold, drought, and low-nutrient stress. The research will advance ecological science in the context of understanding the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and changes in species distribution on the landscape. The project also will contribute to secondary school education through curriculum development. This project will investigate the influence of a key biotic interaction, between plants and soil microbes, on the ability of plant species to track climate change and expand their range uphill in high montane systems. Recent methodological advances will be used to develop experiments to quantify mechanisms that underlie plant-microbial associations and to include results in habitat distribution models. The research includes (1) observational work on distributional patterns of both plants and soil microbes (bacteria and fungi) in a spatially-explicit grid at the upper edge of plant distributions into unvegetated sub-nival areas, (2) manipulations of plant-microbial interactions via inoculation experiments combined with dual-RNA transcriptomics to assay gene expression to describe interactions among plant and microbes and (3) field manipulations of growing season length and plant-microbe associations to quantify the effects of microbial facilitation into previously plant-free zones. Partnership with Rocky Mountain National Park will enable the project to collect data relevant to management concerns and participate in outreach programs, and Science LIVE, an interactive web-based tool, will be used to develop high school curriculum modules.