Journal
FUNGAL ECOLOGY
Volume 66, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.funeco.2023.101286
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Pathogens play a crucial role in shaping plant communities through their species-specific effects on plants. Changes in water availability can alter plant communities by affecting the specificity of plant-pathogen interactions. This study found that under high water availability, a pathogenic soil fungus had stronger negative effects on plant biomass and exhibited species-specific effects.
Through species-specific effects on plants, pathogens play a key role in structuring plant communities. A change in abiotic context, such as those mediated by climate change, may alter plant communities through changes in the specificity of plant-pathogen interactions. To test how water availability influenced the specificity of plantpathogen interactions, we grew paired congeners of three native and three nonnative coastal prairie plant species with or without a pathogenic soil fungus, Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex 6 b, under low, average, and high water treatments. Across the plant species tested, the Fusarium treatment had stronger negative and species-specific effects on plant biomass at high water availability than low water availability. If generalizable, our results suggest that stronger and more species-specific pathogen effects could drive changes in plant community composition in wetter conditions, but plant-pathogen interactions may be less important for plant community structure in drier conditions.
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