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Inspire Session

Session: Where the rubber meets the road: comparing current challenges in ecological restoration across ecosystems

INS 8-1 - Do missing mutualists limit restoration success of rare plants?

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM EDT

Location: 520B

Presenting Author(s)

JB

Jonathan T. Bauer

Assistant Professor
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio, United States

Co-author(s)

EG

Emily Galloway

Graduate Student
Miami University, United States
PP

Paul A. Price

Eastern Michigan University, United States
EG

Emily Grman

Associate professor
Eastern Michigan University, Michigan, United States

Many plant species experience strong establishment limitation in areas with a history of intense anthropogenic disturbance, which can limit the diversity of ecological restoration efforts. One possible explanation for this establishment limitation is a lack of compatible microbial mutualists in highly disturbed soils. Specifically, we have found that several rare plants in the legume family fail to form high-quality mutualisms with rhizobia in many sites, and reintroduction of compatible rhizobia can increase plant nodulation and growth in previously disturbed soils.