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Legacy effects overwhelm the short-term effects of exotic plant invasion and restoration on soil microbial community structure, enzyme activities, and nitrogen cycling

  • Community ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Plant invasions can have substantial consequences for the soil ecosystem, altering microbial community structure and nutrient cycling. However, relatively little is known about what drives these changes, making it difficult to predict the effects of future invasions. In addition, because most studies compare soils from uninvaded areas to long-established dense invasions, little is known about the temporal dependence of invasion impacts. We experimentally manipulated forest understory vegetation in replicated sites dominated either by exotic Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), native Viburnums, or native Vacciniums, so that each vegetation type was present in each site-type. We compared the short-term effect of vegetation changes to the lingering legacy effects of the previous vegetation type by measuring soil microbial community structure (phospholipid fatty acids) and function (extracellular enzymes and nitrogen mineralization). We also replaced the aboveground litter in half of each plot with an inert substitute to determine if changes in the soil microbial community were driven by aboveground or belowground plant inputs. We found that after 2 years, the microbial community structure and function was largely determined by the legacy effect of the previous vegetation type, and was not affected by the current vegetation. Aboveground litter removal had only weak effects, suggesting that changes in the soil microbial community and nutrient cycling were driven largely by belowground processes. These results suggest that changes in the soil following either invasion or restoration do not occur quickly, but rather exhibit long-lasting legacy effects from previous belowground plant inputs.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Jodi Messina, Michael Murillo, and Dr. Max Häggblom for lab and field help. Ed Green provided essential help with statistics. We thank Ai Wen, Monica Palta, Laura Shappell, Brian Clough, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that improved the manuscript. Funding was provided by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to K.J.E. and a National Science Foundation Grant to J.G.E. (NSF DEB-0309047). All experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which the experiments were performed.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Kenneth J. Elgersma

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, 830 N. University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

  2. Shen Yu

    Present address: Institute for Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1799 Jimei Blvd, Xiamen, China

  3. Torsten Vor

    Present address: University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 1, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Kenneth J. Elgersma, Joan G. Ehrenfeld, Shen Yu & Torsten Vor

  2. Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Kenneth J. Elgersma

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  1. Kenneth J. Elgersma
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Correspondence to Kenneth J. Elgersma.

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Communicated by Melinda Smith.

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Elgersma, K.J., Ehrenfeld, J.G., Yu, S. et al. Legacy effects overwhelm the short-term effects of exotic plant invasion and restoration on soil microbial community structure, enzyme activities, and nitrogen cycling. Oecologia 167, 733–745 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-011-2022-0

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