Population genetic variation in the tree fern Alsophila spinulosa (Cyatheaceae): effects of reproductive strategy

Moso Bamboo Invasion Reshapes Community Structure of Denitrifying Bacteria in Rhizosphere of Alsophila spinulosa

The uncontrolled invasion of moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) dramatically alters soil nitrogen cycling and destroys the natural habitat of Alsophila spinulosa. Nevertheless, no clear evidence points out the role of denitrifying bacteria in the invasion of bamboo into the habitat of A. spinulosa. In the present study, we found that low (importance value 0.0008), moderate (0.6551), and high (0.9326) bamboo invasions dramatically altered the underground root biomass of both P. pubescens and A. spinulosa. The root biomass of A. spinulosa was maximal at moderate invasion, indicating that intermediate disturbance might contribute to the growth and survival of the colonized plant. Successful bamboo invasion significantly increased rhizospheric soil available nitrogen content of A. spinulosa, coupled with elevated denitrifying bacterial abundance and diversity. Shewanella, Chitinophaga, and Achromobacter were the primary genera in the three invasions, whereas high bamboo invasion harbored more denitrifying bacteria and higher abundance than moderate and low invasions. Further correlation analysis found that most soil denitrifying bacteria were positively correlated with soil organic matter and available nitrogen but negatively correlated with pH and water content. In addition, our findings illustrated that two denitrifying bacteria, Chitinophaga and Sorangium, might be essential indicators for evaluating the effects of bamboo invasion on the growth of A. spinulosa. Collectively, this study found that moso bamboo invasion could change the nitrogen cycling of colonized habitats through alterations of denitrifying bacteria and provided valuable perspectives for profound recognizing the invasive impacts and mechanisms of bamboo expansion.

Experimental evidence for an intraspecific Janzen-Connell effect mediated by soil biota

The negative effect of soil pathogens on seedling survival varies considerably among conspecific individuals, but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. For variation between heterospecifics, a common explanation is the Janzen-Connell effect: negative density dependence in survival due to specialized pathogens aggregating on common hosts. We test whether an intraspecific Janzen-Connell effect exists, i.e., whether the survival chances of one population's seedlings surrounded by a different conspecific population increase with genetic difference, spatial distance, and trait dissimilarity between them. In a shade-house experiment, we grew seedlings of five populations of each of two subtropical tree species (Castanopsis fissa and Canarium album) for which we measured genetic distance using intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) analysis and eight common traits/characters, and we treated them with soil material or soil biota filtrate collected from different populations. We found that the relative survival rate increased with increasing dissimilarity measured by spatial distance, genetic distance, and trait differences between the seedling and the population around which the soil was collected. This effect disappeared after soil sterilization. Our results provide evidence that genetic variation, trait similarity, and spatial distance can explain intraspecific variation in plant-soil biotic interactions and suggest that limiting similarity also occurs at the intraspecific level.