Authors:

Macy Patel

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About Paper:

Legumes and Non-Legumes Legume and rhizobium mutualisms have been largely overlooked in traditional coexistence literature. Rhizobia are nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria that form symbioses with leguminous hosts through the formation of nodules on the plant's roots. This resource-based mutualism likely influences competition for soil nutrients between legumes and plants that lack rhizobia. Still, fewer studies have explored how dependent conferred competitive advantages from rhizobia are on ambient 264 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON • 2023 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM nitrogen abundance. Here we employ coexistence theory to assess how rhizobia and nitrogen fertilization influence niche and fitness differences and alter competitive outcomes. In addition to independently destabilizing competition between leguminous and non-leguminous plant species, we expect that nitrogen and rhizobia will synergistically increase fitness inequalities, thereby decreasing the probability of plant coexistence. To test the nitrogen-dependent effects of rhizobia on plant coexistence, we conducted a competition greenhouse experiment, replicated across rhizobial inoculation and nitrogen fertilization treatments. We will use this data to parameterize models for competing populations and to assess coexistence probability. These results may provide insight into context-dependent mutualisms and their downstream consequences for plant coexistence. Further, this study may shed light on how eutrophication, a ubiquitous threat to native plant communities, may alter linked plant and microbial communities.

Source:

University of Oregon / 2023

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Co-authors:

Macy Patel