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Soil-borne seed pathogens: contributors to the naturalization gauntlet in Pacific Northwest (USA) forest and steppe communities?

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Abstract

Soil-borne seed pathogens are omnipresent but are often overlooked components of a community’s biotic resistance to plant naturalization and invasion. Using multi-year greenhouse experiments, we compared the seed mortality of single invasive, naturalized, and native grass species in sterilized and unsterilized soils collected from Pacific Northwest (USA) steppe and forest communities. Native Pseudoroegneria spicata displayed the greatest seed mortality, naturalized Secale cereale displayed intermediate seed mortality, and invasive Bromus tectorum was least affected by soil pathogens. Seed mortality across all three species was consistently greater in soils collected from steppe than soils collected from forest; seeds sown into sterilized steppe soil experienced half the overall seed mortality compared to seeds sown into unsterilized steppe soil. Soil sterilization did not affect grass seed mortality in forest soils. We conclude that (1) removing soil-borne pathogens with sterilization does increase native and non-native grass seed survival, and (2) soil-borne pathogens may influence whether an introduced species becomes invasive or naturalized within these Pacific Northwest communities as a result of differential seed survival. Soil-borne pathogens in these communities, however, have the greatest negative effect on the survival of native grass seeds, suggesting that the native microbial soil flora more effectively attack seeds of native plants than seeds of non-native species.

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Acknowledgments

We thank S. Porter, D.E. Pearson and M.F. Dybdahl and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. J. L. Richards, J. Harris and C. Cody provided field assistance, sample and data collection, and greenhouse maintenance, respectively. We thank M. Rule for assistance with site identification and permit preparation at the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge sites. Funds from the Betty Higinbotham Trust at Washington State University provided financial support for this research. A USDA-NIFA Fellowship (Grant #2014-02074; awarded to B.M.C.), Michael Guyer Fellowship funding (UW-Madison, Department of Integrative Biology), and the Dean’s Office at EMU provided financial support to B.M.C. while writing this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, 48197, USA

    B. M. Connolly

  2. Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164, USA

    L. M. Carris

  3. School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164, USA

    B. M. Connolly & R. N. Mack

  4. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    B. M. Connolly

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  1. B. M. Connolly
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Correspondence to B. M. Connolly.

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Communicated by Thomas A. Nagel.

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Connolly, B.M., Carris, L.M. & Mack, R.N. Soil-borne seed pathogens: contributors to the naturalization gauntlet in Pacific Northwest (USA) forest and steppe communities?. Plant Ecol 219, 359–368 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-018-0800-z

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