RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Plant root pathogens over 120,000 years of temperate rainforest ecosystem development
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 042341
DO 10.1101/042341
A1 Ian A. Dickie
A1 Angela M. Wakelin
A1 Laura Martinez-Garcia
A1 Sarah J. Richardson
A1 Andreas Makiola
A1 Jason M. Tylianakis
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/03/04/042341.abstract
AB The role of pathogens, including oomycetes, in long-term ecosystem development has remained largely unknown, despite hypotheses that pathogens drive primary succession, determine mature ecosystem plant diversity, or dominate in retrogressive, nutrient-limited ecosystems. Using DNA sequencing from roots, we investigated the frequency and host relationships of oomycete communities along a 120 000 year glacial chronosequence. Oomycetes were frequent in early successional sites (5 - 70 yrs), occurring in 38 – 65% of plant roots, but rare (average 3%) in all older ecosystems (280 yrs and older). Oomycetes were highly host specific, and more frequent on plant species that declined most strongly in abundance between ecosystem ages. In contrast, oomycetes were not correlated with plant abundance or plant root traits associated with retrogression. The results support the importance of root pathogens in early succession, but not thereafter, suggesting root pathogen-driven dynamics may be important in driving succession but not long-term diversity maintenance.