OOS 8 - Mycorrhizal Fungi as Drivers and Modulators of Ecosystem Processes

Tuesday, August 9, 2016: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
Grand Floridian Blrm F, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
Organizer:
Nina Wurzburger, University of Georgia
Co-organizers:
M. Luke McCormack, University of Minnesota; and Jack Brookshire, Montana State University
Moderator:
Nina Wurzburger, University of Georgia
Mycorrhizal fungi are ubiquitous symbionts of land plants, are vital for plant growth and have been studied in an ecological context for well over a century. While we have gained tremendous insight into the evolution, physiology and partner identity of these plant-fungal symbioses, we are still lacking synthetic understanding of their role in ecosystems. Conceptual and theoretical frameworks recently developed describe how mycorrhizal fungi influence ecosystem properties and modulate processes within systems. Our organized oral session will highlight some of these recent advances with a core focus on the role of mycorrhizal fungi from an ecosystem perspective in which macroscopic pattern and process emerges from local organism-environment interactions and long-term dynamics of inputs and losses. Our goal is to facilitate discussion and idea exchange among a broad range of ecologists who conduct research in this emerging area. We will focus on biogeochemical consequences of mycorrhizal fungi, including elemental fluxes among plants, soils, atmosphere and hydrosphere, with the recognition that these fluxes are ultimately organized at the level of individual plants and fungi. To motivate conceptual advance, we will discuss processes from fine scales (e.g., gene expression, extracellular enzyme activity, decomposition and nutrient acquisition) to increasingly coarse scales, which capture the importance of trait assembly within mycorrhizal fungal communities and interactions with other soil micoorganisms. Most broadly, we will discuss how mycorrhizal symbioses may give rise to patterns and processes at the scale of ecosystems and biomes, including how the dominance of mycorrhizal types (i.e., arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal symbioses) influence biogeochemical cycling. This synthetic understanding of mycorrhizal fungi across scales is critical for the accurate representation of microbial-plant interactions in Earth system models that simulate the terrestrial carbon cycle and global change.
8:00 AM
8:20 AM
 Mycorrhizal symbioses of trees have different indirect effects on organic matter decomposition
Melanie K. Taylor, USDA Forest Service; Richard A. Lankau, University of Wisconsin; Nina Wurzburger, University of Georgia
9:00 AM
 Nitrogen pollution shifts forest mycorrhizal associations at continental scale
Colin Averill, Boston University; Michael Dietze, Boston University; Jennifer M. Talbot, Boston University
9:20 AM
 Linking mycorrhizal fungal community composition and functional traits to nutrient cycling and carbon storage along ecosystem gradients
Karina E. Clemmensen, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Roger D. Finlay, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Björn D. Lindahl, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
9:40 AM
9:50 AM
 Patterns in soil carbon and nitrogen relate to mycorrhizal and phylogenetic identity of forest trees across eastern North America
M. Luke McCormack, University of Minnesota; Richard A. Lankau, University of Wisconsin; J. Franklin Egan, USDA Agricultural Research Service; Nina Wurzburger, University of Georgia
10:10 AM
 Alternative stable states in soil mutualist communities and ecosystem function
Marie Duhamel, Stanford University; Kabir Peay, Stanford University
10:30 AM
 Effects of climate change across seasons on mycorrhizal community composition at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest
Maria Osuna Garcia, Boston University; Jennifer M. Talbot, Boston University; Pamela H. Templer, Boston University; Patrick O. Sorensen, Boston University; Adrien C. Finzi, Boston University; Peter M. Groffman, CUNY Advanced Science Research Center; John Campbell, United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service
10:50 AM
 Mycorrhizal associations as trait integrators for biogeochemical syndromes in forests
Richard P. Phillips, Indiana University; Edward R. Brzostek, West Virginia University; Meghan G. Midgley, The Morton Arboretum; Adrienne B. Keller, Indiana University
11:10 AM
 Responses of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to nutrient availability in dry tropical forests
Bonnie Waring, Utah State University; Jennifer S. Powers, University of Minnesota