SpringerLink
Log in

Rhizosphere-mediated effects of the invasive grass Bromus tectorum L. and native Elymus elymoides on nitrogen cycling in Great Basin Desert soils

  • Regular Article
  • Published:
Plant and Soil Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background and aims

There is evidence that the invasive grass Bromus tectorum can affect soil nitrogen (N) cycling, possibly leading to a positive plant-soil feedback. Rhizosphere priming of N mineralization could provide a mechanistic explanation for such a feedback.

Methods

We conducted a greenhouse study to isolate rhizosphere effects on N cycling by the invasive annual grass, Bromus tectorum L., and the native perennial grass, Elymus elymoides (Raf.) Swezey, in invaded and uninvaded soils. We compared the rhizosphere priming effect (RPE) on N mineralization by species and the distribution of N in various pools by planting treatment and soil type.

Results

B. tectorum had a negative RPE (−23 and −22 % in invaded and uninvaded soils, respectively), while E. elymoides had no significant RPE. B. tectorum was more competitive over E. elymoides in invaded compared to uninvaded soil.

Conclusions

B. tectorum had a negative effect on soil N availability via root-mediated processes, even though its growth and competitiveness increased in invaded soils. Positive plant-soil feedback effects of B. tectorum may be mediated by aboveground inputs rather than belowground and/or depend on site-specific conditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (Canada)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

N:

Nitrogen

RPE:

Rhizosphere priming effect

References

  • Arrendondo JT, Jones TA, Johnson DA (1998) Seedling growth of Intermountain perennial and weedy annual grasses. J Range Manage 51:584–589

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belnap J, Phillips SL (2001) Soil biota in an ungrazed grassland- Response to annual grass (Bromus tectorum) invasion. Ecol Appl 11(5):1261–1275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belnap J, Phillips SL, Moldenke AR, Sherrod SK (2005) Soil biota can change after exotic plant invasion- does this affect ecosystem processes? Ecology 86(11):3007–3017

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bird JA, Herman DJ, Firestone MK (2011) Rhizosphere priming of soil organic matter by bacterial groups in a grassland soil. Soil Biol Biochem 43:718–725

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blank RR, Morgan TA (2013) Soil engineering facilitates downy brome (Bromus tectorum) growth- a case study. Inv Plant Sci Manage 6:391–400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blank RR, Young JA (2004) Influence of three weed species on soil nutrient availability. Soil Sci 169(5):385–397

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bolton H, Smith JL, Wildung RE (1990) Nitrogen mineralization potential of shrub-steppe soils with different disturbance histories. Soil Sci Soc Am J 54:887–891

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bolton H, Smith JL, Link SO (1993) Soil microbial biomass and activity of a disturbed and undisturbed shrub-steppe ecosystem. Soil Biol Biochem 25(5):545–552

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Booth MS, Stark JM, Caldwell MM (2003) Inorganic N turnover and availability in annual- and perennial-dominated soils in a northern Utah shrub-steppe ecosystem. Biogeochemistry 66(3):311–330

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brookes PC, Landman A, Pruden G, Jenkinson DS (1985) Chloroform fumigation and the release of soil nitrogen: a rapid direct extraction method to measure microbial biomass nitrogen in soil. Soil Biol Biochem 17(6):837–842

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks ML (2003) Effects of increased soil nitrogen on the dominance of alien annual plants in the Mojave Desert. J Appl Ecol 40:344–353

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks ML, D’Antonio CM, Richardson DM, Grace JB, Keeley JE, DiTomaso JM, Hobbs RJ, Pellant M, Pyke D (2004) Effects of invasive alien plants on fire regimes. Bioscience 54:677–688

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Busby RR (2011) Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L) interactions with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the North American steppe: prevalence and diversity of associations, and divergence from native vegetation. Dissertation, Colorado State University

  • Cabrera MR, Beare MH (1993) Alkaline persulfate oxidation for determining total nitrogen in microbial biomass extracts. Soil Sci Soc Am J 57:1007–1012

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers JC, Roundy BA, Blank RR, Meyer SE, Whittaker A (2007) What makes Great Basin sagebrush ecosystems invasible by Bromus tectorum? Ecol Mono 77:117–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng W (1999) Rhizosphere feedbacks in elevated CO2. Tree Physiol 19:313–320

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng W, Johnson DW, Fu S (2003) Rhizosphere effects on decomposition: controls of plant species, phenology, and fertilization. Soil Sci Soc Am J 67:1418–1427

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng W, Parton WJ, Gonzalez-Meler MA, Phillips R, Asao S, McNickle GG, Brzostek E, Jastrow JD (2014) Synthesis and modeling perspectives of rhizosphere priming. New Phyt 201:31–44

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Concilio A, Loik ME, Belnap J (2013) Global change effects on Bromus tectorum L. (Poaceae) at its high-elevation range margin. Glob Change Biol 19:161–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corbin J, D’Antonio CM (2012) Gone but not forgotten? Invasive plants’ legacies on community and ecosystem properties. Inv Plant Sci Manage 5(1):117–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dijkstra FA, Bader NE, Johnson DW, Cheng WX (2009) Does accelerated soil organic matter decomposition in the presence of plants increase plant N availability? Soil Biol Biochem 41:1080–1087

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dijkstra FA, Cheng W (2007) Moisture modulates rhizosphere effects on C decomposition in two different soil types. Soil Biol Biochem 39:2264–2274

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenfeld J (2003) Effects of exotic plant invasions on soil nutrient cycling processes. Ecosystems 6:503–523

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenfeld J, Ravit B, Elgersma K (2005) Feedback in the plant-soil system. Ann Rev Environ Resour 30:75–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans RD, Rimer R, Sperry L, Belnap J (2001) Exotic plant invasion alters nitrogen dynamics in an arid grassland. Ecol Appl 11(5):1301–1310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fontaine S, Barot S (2005) Size and functional diversity of microbe populations control plant persistence and long-term soil carbon accumulation. Ecol Lett 8:1075–1087

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gärdenäs AI, Ågren GI, Bird JA, Clarholm M, Hallin S, Ineson P, Kätterer T, Knicker H, Nilsson SI, Näsholm T, Ogle S, Paustian K, Persson T, Stendahl J (2011) Knowledge gaps in soil carbon and nitrogen interactions- from molecular to global scale. Soil Biol Biochem 43:702–717

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gasch CK, Enloe SF, Stahl PD, Williams SE (2013) An aboveground-belowground assessment of ecosystem properties associated with annual brome invasion. Biol Fertil Soils 49:919–928

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Grove S, Haubensak KA, Parker IM (2012) Direct and indirect effects of allelopathy in the soil legacy of an exotic plant invasion. Plant Ecol 213:1869–1882

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guenet B, Leloup J, Raynaud X, Bardoux G, Abbadie L (2010) Negative priming effect on organic matter from a soil free of vegetation for 80 years. Eur J Soil Sci 61:384–391

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Grman E, Suding KN (2010) Within-year soil legacies contribute to strong priority effects on native California grassland communities. Restor Ecol 18(5):664–670

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagen DL, Jose S, Bohn K, Escobedo F (2013) Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) invasion and eradication: implications for soil nutrient dynamics in a longleaf pine sandhill ecosystem. Inv Plant Sci Manage 6(3):433–443

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris GA (1967) Some competitive relationships between Agropyron spicatum and Bromus tectorum. Ecol Mono 37:89–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haubensak KA, D’Antonio CM, Alexander J (2004) Effects of nitrogen-fixing shrubs in Washington and coastal California. Weed Technol 18:1475–1479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huenneke LF, Hamburg SP, Koide R, Mooney HA, Vitousek PM (1990) Effects of soil resources on plant invasion and community structure in California serpentine grassland. Ecology 71:478–491

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Humphrey LD, Schupp EW (2004) Competition as a barrier to establishment of a native perennial grass (Elymus elymoides) in alien annual grass (Bromus tectorum) communities. J Arid Env 58(4):405–422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones TA, Monaco TA, James JJ (2010) Launching the counterattack: interdisciplinary deployment of native-plant functional traits for repair of rangelands contaminated by invasive annual grasses. Rangelands 32:38–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuske CR, Ticknor LO, Miller ME, Dunbar JM, Davis JA, Barns SM, Belnap J (2002) Comparison of soil bacterial communities in rhizosphere of three plant species and interspaces in an arid grassland. Appl Environ Microbiol 68(4):1854–1863

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lankau RA, Bauer JT, Anderson MR, Anderson RC (2014) Long-term legacies and partial recovery of mycorrhizal communities after invasive plant removal. Biol Invasions 16:1979–1990

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee MR, Flory SL, Phillips RP (2012) Positive feedbacks to growth of an invasive grass through alteration of nitrogen cycling. Oecologia 170:457–465

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lowe PN, Lauenroth WK, Burke IC (2003) Effects of nitrogen availability on competition between Bromus tectorum and Bouteloua gracilis. Plant Ecol 167:247–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mack RN, Simberloff D, Lonsdale WM, Evans H, Clout M, Bazzaz FA (2000) Biotic invasions: causes, epidemiology, global consequences and control. Ecol Appl 10:689–710

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacKown CT, Jones TA, Johnson DA, Monaco TA, Redinbaugh MG (2009) Nitrogen uptake by perennial and invasive annual grass seedlings: nitrogen form effects. Soil Sci Soc Am J 73:1864–1870

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martina JP (2012) Invasive plant species impacts on carbon and nitrogen cycling in inland Michigan wetlands. Dissertation, Michigan State University

  • Meisner A, de Boer W, Verhoeven KJF, Boschker HTS, van der Putten WH (2011) Comparison of nutrient acquisition in exotic plant species and congeneric natives. J Ecol 99:1308–1315

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Monaco TA, Johnson DA, Norton JM, Jones TA, Connors KJ, Norton JB, Redinbaugh MB (2003) Contrasting responses of Intermountain West grasses to soil nitrogen. J Range Manage 56:282–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mosley JC, Bunting SC, Manoukian ME (1999) Cheatgrass. In: Biology and Management of noxious rangeland weeds. Sheley, Petroff (Eds). Oregon State University Press. pp.175–188

  • Norton JB, Monaco TA, Norton JM, Johnson DA, Jones TA (2004) Soil morphology and organic matter dynamics under cheatgrass and sagebrush-steppe plant communities. J Arid Environ 57:445–466

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paschke MW, McLendon T, Redente EF (2000) Nitrogen availability and old-field succession in a shortgrass steppe. Ecosystems 3:144–158

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pausch J, Zhu B, Kuzyakov Y, Cheng WX (2013) Plant inter-species effects on rhizosphere priming of soil organic matter decomposition. Soil Biol Biochem 57:91–99

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Perkins LB, Nowak RS (2012) Soil conditioning and plant-soil feedbacks affect competitive relationships between native and invasive grasses. Plant Ecol 213:1337–1344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perkins LB, Johnson DW, Nowak RS (2011) Plant-induced changes in soil nutrient dynamics by native and invasive grass species. Plant Soil 345:365–374

  • Rafferty DL, Young JA (2002) Cheatgrass competition and establishment of desert needlegrass seedlings. J Range Manage 55:70–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rao LE, Steers RJ, Allen EB (2011) Effects of natural and anthropogenic gradients on native and exotic winter annuals in a southern California Desert. Plant Ecol 212:1079–1089

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rimer RL, Evans RD (2006) Invasion of downy brome (Bromus tectorum L.) causes rapid changes in the nitrogen cycle. Am Mid Nat 156(2):252–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saetre P, Stark JM (2005) Microbial dynamics and carbon and nitrogen cycling following rewetting of soils beneath two semi-arid plant species. Oecologia 142:247–260

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schaeffer SM, Ziegler SE, Belnap J, Evans RD (2012) Effects of Bromus tectorum invasion on microbial carbon and nitrogen cycling in two adjacent undisturbed arid grassland communities. Biogeochemistry 111:427–441

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scharfy D, Güsewell S, Gessner MO, Venterink HO (2010) Invasion of Solidago gigantean in contrasting experiment plant communities: effects on soil microbes, nutrients and plant-soil feedbacks. J Ecol 98:1379–1388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sperry LJ, Belnap J, Evans RD (2006) Bromus tectorum invasion alters nitrogen dynamics in an undisturbed grassland ecosystem. Ecology 87:603–615

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Suding KN, Gross KL, Houseman G (2004) Alternative states and positive feedbacks in restoration ecology. Trends Ecol Evol 19:46–53

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Svejcar T, Sheley R (2001) Nitrogen dynamics in perennial- and annual-dominated arid rangeland. J Arid Env 47:33–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Putten WH, Bardgett RD, Bever JD, Bezemer TM, Casper BB, Fukami T, Kardol P, Klironomos JN, Kulmatiski A, Schweitzer JA, Suding KN, Van de Voorde TFJ, Wardle DA (2013) Plant–soil feedbacks: the past, the present and future challenges. J Ecol 101(2):265–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vilá M, Espinar JL, Hejda M, Hulme PE, Jarošik V, Maron JL, Pergl J, Schaffner U, Sun Y, Pyšek P (2011) Ecological impacts of invasive alien plants: a meta-analysis of their effects on species, communities, and ecosystems. Ecol Lett 14:702–708

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek PM, Walker LR (1989) Biological invasion by Myrica faya in Hawai’i: plant demography, nitrogen fixation, ecosystem effects. Ecol Mono 59:247–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss SB (1999) Cows, cars, and checkerspot butterflies: Nitrogen deposition and management of nutrient-poor grasslands for a threatened species. Conserv Biol 13:1476–1486

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Witwicki DL, Doescher PS, Pyke DA, DeCrappeo NM, Perakis SS (2012) Nitrogen limitation, 15N tracer retention, and growth response in intact and Bromus tectorum-invaded Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis communities. Oecologia 171:1013–1023

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe BE, Klironomos JN (2005) Breaking new ground: soil communities and exotic plant invasion. Bioscience 55(6):477–487

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank Jim Velzy and Denise Polk of the UCSC Greenhouse Facilities for their support with this experiment, Danielle Boles and Taryn Cadena for help processing samples, and Timothy Seastedt, Biao Zhu, and two anonymous reviewers for giving constructive feedback on the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, 1560 30th St, Boulder, CO, 80303, USA

    Amy Concilio

  2. Departamento de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Pato Branco, PR, 85503-390, Brazil

    Thiago Vargas

  3. Department of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA

    Weixin Cheng

Authors
  1. Amy Concilio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thiago Vargas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Weixin Cheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amy Concilio.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Gera Hol .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Concilio, A., Vargas, T. & Cheng, W. Rhizosphere-mediated effects of the invasive grass Bromus tectorum L. and native Elymus elymoides on nitrogen cycling in Great Basin Desert soils. Plant Soil 393, 245–257 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2482-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2482-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation