Jason Verbeek's paper on Oecologia

Soil-mediated impacts of an invasive thistle inhibit the recruitment of certain native plants

Oecologia, July 2019, Volume 190, Issue 3, pp 619–628

Plant invasions may be facilitated or inhibited by soil microbes. In this paper, we investigated how soil microbes in areas invaded by Canada thistle can limit the establishment of native plant species. We exposed seeds and seedlings of these species to soils sampled from invaded areas. The microbial community of invaded areas reduced germination or growth for three of the eight native species tested, but did not affect Canada thistle. These results suggest that soil microbial interactions benefit the invader by reducing some native plant species’ competitive ability. If these effects influence plant abundance in the field, microbially-mediated interactions may aid the invasion of Canada thistle and influence its long-term impacts on invaded communities.