Soil Variability And Its Influence On Plant Performance

Abstract

During recorded history, nearly all temperate deciduous forests in eastern North America have seen extensive agricultural land-use conversions. Persistent influences of agricultural disturbance continue to shape the diversity and composition of the plant community long after agriculture has ceased. While some measures of ecosystem functioning may recover relatively quickly from agricultural disturbance, other characteristics such as levels of organic matter, carbon, and phosphorus, may remain different from primary forests for much longer periods. The alteration of the original ecosystem due to agriculture practices has far reaching impacts on biotic and nutrient dynamics along with causing significant shifts in community composition both above and below ground.

Large scale disturbance, such as agriculture, creates the opportunity for invasive species to become established, colonize these disturbed areas and out-compete native vegetation. The potential for plant communities to be influenced through abiotic pathways, such as nutrient availability and competition, has received much attention within the scientific literature. Accumulating evidence has also identified soil biota, mainly through plant-soil feedback mechanisms, as a determinant of species composition. Feedback mechanisms have been shown to increase the rates of non-native species invasions that may impact essential successional transitions. As soils and their associated biotic communities are likely to vary over small spatial scales, the direction and magnitude of biofeedbacks may also vary spatially. However, most studies have not examined spatial variation within soil biofeedbacks.

Date of Award	2010
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	Eastern Illinois University
Supervisor	Scott J. Meiners (Supervisor)