OOS 5 - Using Traits to Understand the Natural History and Ecology of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi

Organizer(s)

• JH

  Jacob Hopkins

  Postdoctoral Researcher
  The Ohio State University, United States

Co-Organizer(s)

• AB

  Alison Bennett

  Associate Professor
  The Ohio State University
  Columbus, Ohio, United States

Trait-based approaches provide valuable insight into how organisms interact with their environment. These approaches have been utilized with great success in plant studies to explore environmental and temporal effects on community assembly, community responses to disturbance regimes, and how selection for traits can influence ecological function. Despite the heavy use of trait-based approaches in plant studies, few microbial studies have tested how the traits of plant associated soil microbes like arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi respond to aboveground processes. Since AM fungi directly influence plant growth and nutrient cycles, understanding how traits influence AM fungal interactions with their environment can improve our understanding of AM fungal responses to aboveground process, AM fungal community assembly, and plant-fungal interactions.
The goal of this session is to illustrate how trait-based approaches can improve our knowledge of AM fungal ecology, community assembly, and natural history. We will address this goal by presenting recent work from soil ecologists who are pioneering trait-based approaches in their research programs. This work covers three primary themes: 1) How AM fungal traits are associated with responses to aboveground effects, 2) How AM fungal trait responses vary in relation to time (seasonal/inter-year/successional), and 3) How AM fungal traits are associated with their ecological function and dispersal. Furthermore, the research covered in the OOS is highly interdisciplinary in that it includes field, microbiology, land restoration, land management, physics, bioinformatics, genomics, and chemistry components. With this session, we hope to demonstrate the utility of including traits in microbial and soil ecology studies, as well as improve our general understanding of AM fungal natural history and ecology.

Presentations:

• 1:30 PM – 1:45 PM PDT

  AM fungal trait responses to fire history and seasonality
  

  Presenting Author: Jacob R. Hopkins – The Ohio State University

  Co-author: Alison E. Bennett – The Ohio State University

  Co-author: Thomas McKenna, PhD – The Land Institute
• 1:45 PM – 2:00 PM PDT

  Specificity and environmental niche breadth of mycorrhizal fungi may predict their response to global change
  

  Presenting Author: Stephanie Kivlin – University of Tennessee

  Co-author: Tyler d'Entremont – University of Tennessee

  Co-author: Christine Hawkes – North Carolina State University

  Co-author: Johan van den Hoogen – ETH Zurich

  Co-author: Thomas W. Crowther – ETH Zurich

  Co-author: Colin Averill – ETH Zürich

  Co-author: Benjamin Sikes – University of Kansas

  Co-author: Aimee T. Classen, PhD – University of Michigan

  Co-author: Amy zanne – Department of Biology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA
• 2:00 PM – 2:15 PM PDT

  Understanding mycorrhizal phenotypes using functional traits
  

  Presenting Author: Jeff Powell – Western Sydney University
• 2:15 PM – 2:30 PM PDT

  Symbiotic status alters fungal eco-evolutionary offspring trajectories
  

  Presenting Author: Carlos Aguilar-Trigueros – Western Sydney University
• 2:30 PM – 2:45 PM PDT

  Applying Optimal Foraging Theory in Studying Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Nitrogen Foraging Behaviors
  

  Presenting Author: Xin Lin – The Ohio State University

  Co-author: Alison E. Bennett – The Ohio State University