Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Do Fungal Symbionts Of Salt Marsh Plants Affect Interspecies Competition?, Vanessa Robertson-Rojas

Dissertations and Theses

The effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) as salt marsh plant symbionts may have significant effects on landscape scale distribution patterns and plant-related ecosystem functions that are important to estuarine habitats. This work investigates the effects AMF have on Phalaris arundinacea, Deschampsia cespitosa, and Juncus balticus when grown in a common garden experiment. Plants were grown with and without AMF inoculation in both polyculture and monoculture communities and examined for a variety of response variables that represent different competition strategies. Factorial ANOVA analysis revealed a significant three-way interaction among fungal treatment type, community type, and species for …