Community and ecosystem consequences of endophyte symbiosis with tall fescue
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33584/rps.13.2006.3082Abstract
We have investigated community and ecosystem consequences of endophyte symbiosis with tall fescue over the past 13 years. Lolium arundinaceum is the most abundant plant in the eastern USA, and most is infected by the wild-type endophyte Neotyphodium coenophialum in Kentucky 31. We established two large experimental grasslands (in 1994 and in 2000) with E+ and E- seed sown in each on recently ploughed herbaceous vegetation. Other plant species established naturally by seed or vegetative fragments. No other treatments were applied and plots were subject to natural biotic and abiotic variation. A third experiment examined ecological influences on endophyte infection dynamics starting from an intermediate infection frequency. We found wide-ranging consequences of the endophyte from significant effects on soil feedback and decomposition rates, to plant-plant competition, diversity, productivity, invasibility and succession, to plant-herbivore interactions and energy flow to higher trophic levels. Further, we found that herbivore pressure caused rapid increases in infection frequency. Our results suggest that endophyte symbiosis in tall fescue can have a transforming effect on ecological systems. Keywords: Lolium arundinaceum, Neotyphodium coenophialum, soil, competition, herbivory, trophc interactions, predators, MaxQ endophyte
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