Department of Biology

It's a small world after all: the impacts of plant-associated microbes on forest and grassland biomes

Dr. Eric Griffin
Warren Wilson College

September 15, 2023
3-4pm

Hosted By Dr. Kim Komatsu

Abstract:

Plant-associated microbes, or bacteria and fungi that occur on and inside plant tissues, comprise a cryptic component of plant communities and yet may be critical drivers of plant performance, trophic interactions, and entire ecosystem dynamics.  Totaling more than twice the Earth’s land surface area, leaves comprise one of the largest microbial habitats globally and yet have been understudied compared to soil and rhizosphere microbes.  My research has focused on understanding the diversity, distributions, and impacts of foliar fungi and bacteria on tree hosts in forest and grassland biomes.  Overall, we have discovered that foliar endophytes (microbes inside leaves) are relatively host-specific, though a small yet abundant core microbiome exists among phylogenetically distinct plant taxa.  Moreover, experimentally disrupting the microbiome with a disturbance regime can either increase or decrease plant host performance by up to 49% as well as impact additional trophic levels (e.g., herbivory).  Current and future work includes understanding the role of foliar microbes in entire ecosystem dynamics, which may prove that foliar microbes are a critical hinge point which drive trophic dynamics in plant communities.