2020 ESA Annual Meeting (August 3 - 6)

OOS 53 - Bridging the Gap Between Fine-Root and Fungal Functional Traits

Organizer:
Camille E. Defrenne
Co-organizers:
Colleen Iversen , Brian J. Pickles and Monika A Gorzelak
The tiniest roots of terrestrial plants are also the mightiest; their role is to absorb the soil nutrients and water required for plant survival. However, these superheroes have fungal sidekicks which perform multiple roles, from facilitating resource absorption (i.e., mycorrhizal fungi), to decomposing dead root material (i.e., saprotrophs), to inhabiting root tissue (i.e., endophytes), and causing root diseases (i.e., pathogens). The dynamic way in which plant roots and fungi team up - in other words, cycle carbon and nutrients and contribute to soil carbon storage - is driven in part by their traits (e.g., root length and phenology, fungal respiration and exploration type). In turn, these traits control the ability of terrestrial ecosystem to act as a sink for anthropogenic carbon. Global change pressures have driven exponential increases in research on fine-root and fungal traits. We expect that the generation of such trait data will accelerate with the development of new molecular tools (High Throughput Sequencing) and monitoring techniques (High Throughput Plant Phenotyping), and new ways to analyse root images from minirhizotrons (soil cameras) such as machine learning. Recent efforts toward harnessing the information contained in these data have led to the synthesis of large trait databases for fine-roots, mycorrhizal fungi, and fungal guilds (groupings based on fungal lifestyles). However, belowground impacts have often only been studied from one side of these partnerships or the other, not directly linking the fungal and root traits, nor the emergent traits from their partnerships. Conclusions drawn solely from individual databases may prove too limited to understand holistic belowground ecosystem function or to provide useful information for models, as they fail to consider the interactions between fine roots and plant-associated fungi. In this session, we will bridge the gap between fine-root and fungal functional traits by improving interactions among root and fungal ecologists. Our goal is to facilitate connections among belowground trait databases.
Fine-roots and fungal friends: How various trait combinations make up diverse belowground strategies
Monique Weemstra, CNRS - Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Wageningen University; Natasa Kiorapostolou, Wageningen University; Jasper van Ruijven, Wageningen University; Liesje Mommer, Wageningen University; Jorad de Vries, Wageningen University; Frank J. Sterck, Wageningen University
Trade-offs among functional traits aid predictions for mycorrhizal fungal dispersal
Bala Chaudhary, DePaul University; Carlos Aguilar-Trigueros, Freie Universität; Matthias C. Rillig, Freie Universitaet Berlin
Ectomycorrhizal networks at the temperate-boreal ecotone: Do fungal traits govern structure and response to climate change?
Christopher Fernandez, University of Minnesota; Louis Mielke, University of Minnesota; Artur Stefanski, University of Minnesota; Sarah E. Hobbie, University of Minnesota; Rebecca A. Montgomery, University of Minnesota; Peter B. Reich, University of Minnesota; Peter G. Kennedy, University of Minnesota
Taking fine-root and fungal traits beyond the mycorrhizal frontier - Mycorrhizae, saprotrophs, endophytes, and pathogens
Brian J. Pickles, University of Reading; Monika A Gorzelak, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; Lisa O'Donnell, City of Austin; Sarah Duddigan, University of Reading; Cristina M. Campbell, City of Austin; Laurel L. Moulton, City of Austin; Charles R. Hauser, St Edward's University