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Major theories regarding microbe‐mediated plant community dynamics assume that plant species cultivate distinct microbial communities. However, few studies empirically assess the role of species‐associated microbial community dissimilarity in plant competitive dynamics. In this study, we paired a competition experiment between eight annual forbs with characterisation of species‐associated fungal communities to assess whether mycobiome dissimilarity is associated with pairwise competitive dynamics.
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Mechanistic approaches to investigate soil microbe‐mediated plant competition
Abstract Interactions between plants and soil microbes can influence plant population dynamics and diversity in plant communities. Traditional theoretical paradigms view the microbial community as a black box with net effects described by phenomenological models.This approach struggles to quantify the importance of plant–microbe interactions relative to other competition and coexistence mechanisms and to explain context dependence in microbe effects.We argue that a mechanistic framework focused on microbial functional groups will lead to conceptual and empirical advances, as demonstrated by extending resource ratio theory to plant–microbe interactions. We review the diverse pathways by which different microbial functional groups can influence plant resource competition. Finally, we suggest approaches to link theory with observations to measure the key parameters of our framework.Synthesis: Our review highlights recent experimental advancements for uncovering microbial mechanisms that alter plant host resource competition and coexistence. We synthesize these mechanisms into a conceptual model that provides a framework for future experiments to investigate the importance of plant–microbe interactions in structuring plant populations and communities.
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- PAR ID:
- 10429661
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Ecology
- Volume:
- 111
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 0022-0477
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 1590-1597
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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