Sanders, Shareen (2024). Understanding plant-soil interactions of native and non-native plants under climatic extremes. (Thesis). Universität Bern, Bern
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Abstract
Many theoretical concepts developed to explain the success of non-native plant species have often centered on the phenotypic traits of the non-native plant or the features of the native environment. While these theories have faced conflicting evidence, there is a considerable amount of evidence suggesting that drought creates windows of opportunity for certain non-native plants to thrive. While current frameworks are primarily based on seasonal droughts, the unique characteristics of extreme droughts necessitate reevaluating our understanding of drought-mediated plant invasion. Likewise, biotic interactions with other trophic groups play a major role in determining the success of a non-native plant in a novel community. Here, we aim to explore aspects through which extreme drought facilitates the invasion of non-native species, focusing on the trait responses of the non-native plant, the presence of soil microbes such as mycorrhizal fungi and the plant-soil feedback (PSF) effect of the native plant community differing in traits, diversity and the presence of an invasive plant. In the following chapters, we investigate: 1) how extreme drought, extreme flooding and sequential extreme drought and flooding events impact the PSF effect of invasional meltdown (Chapter 1), 2) how intraspecific competition impacts the extreme drought recovery of a range-expanding and native congener in the presence of mycorrhizal fungi (Chapter 2; Sanders et al. 2024), and, 3) how extreme drought and in the presence of mycorrhizal fungi impact the PSF effect on plant communities differing in plant traits and diversity (Chapter 3). 4) Lastly, we speculate how extreme drought mediated invasibility also depends on the ecological response of the native communities as well as the ecological barriers at different invasive stages (Chapter 4; Sanders et al. 2024).
| Item Type: | Thesis |
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| Dissertation Type: | Cumulative |
| Date of Defense: | 21 November 2024 |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology |
| Institute / Center: | 08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) |
| Depositing User: | Hammer Igor |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Feb 2025 07:52 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Feb 2025 07:52 |
| URI: | https://boristheses.unibe.ch/id/eprint/5813 |
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