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Soils as agents of selection: feedbacks between plants and soils alter seedling survival and performance

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Abstract

Soils are one of the first selective environments a seed experiences and yet little is known about the evolutionary consequences of plant-soil feedbacks. We have previously found that plant phytochemical traits in a model system, Populus spp., influence rates of leaf litter decay, soil microbial communities and rates of soil net nitrogen mineralization. Utilizing this natural variation in plant-soil linkages we examined two related hypotheses: (1) Populus angustifolia seedlings are locally adapted to their native soils; and (2) Soils act as agents of selection, differentially affecting seedling survival and the heritability of plant traits. We conducted a greenhouse experiment by planting seedlings from 20 randomly collected P. angustifolia genetic families in soils conditioned by various Populus species and measured subsequent survival and performance. Even though P. angustifolia soils are less fertile overall, P. angustifolia seedlings grown in these soils were twice as likely to survive, grew 24% taller, had 27% more leaves, and 29% greater above-ground biomass than P. angustifolia seedlings grown in non-native P. fremontii or hybrid soils. Increased survival resulted in higher trait variation among seedlings in native soils compared to seedlings grown in non-native soils. Soil microbial biomass varied significantly across soil environments which could explain more of the variation in seedling performance than soil texture, pH, or nutrient availability, suggesting strong microbial interactions and feedbacks between plants, soils, and associated microorganisms. Overall, these data suggest that a “home-field advantage” or a positive plant soil feedback helps maintain genetic variance in P. angustifolia seedlings.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Bob Barbour, Dave Smith, Dan Guido, Wes Winslow, Mike Stoddard, Morgan Luce for assistance in the field and laboratory, the NAU Ecological Restoration Institute, and Brad Blake and Phil Patterson at the Northern Arizona University greenhouse for assistance. We thank Paul Kardol, Brad Potts and the extended Hart and Whitham lab groups for their feedback, discussions and helpful comments on the manuscript. CP was supported by a Henry Hooper Fellowship in Undergraduate Research from Northern Arizona University. Additional funding was supplied by the National Science Foundation, Frontiers in Integrated Biological Research program DEB-0078280 and DEB-0743437.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, 569 Dabney Hall, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Clara C. Pregitzer, Joseph K. Bailey & Jennifer A. Schweitzer

  2. School of Natural Sciences and Sierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California, Merced, CA, 95344, USA

    Stephen C. Hart

  3. School of Plant Science and CRC for Forestry, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    Joseph K. Bailey

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  1. Clara C. Pregitzer
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Correspondence to Clara C. Pregitzer.

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Pregitzer, C.C., Bailey, J.K., Hart, S.C. et al. Soils as agents of selection: feedbacks between plants and soils alter seedling survival and performance. Evol Ecol 24, 1045–1059 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-010-9363-8

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