Plant Ecology Laboratory
Research in our lab focuses on diversity patterns in biological communities, and on the interactions underlying these patterns. The main questions we address are: how do communities vary along natural gradients and gradients of human impact? What are the major assembly rules shaping communities; and are they attributable to biotic interactions or environmental heterogeneity? What are the roles of different biotic interactions - including competition, facilitation, herbivory and symbiosis - in structuring communities? Read more
News archive - May
Assessment of the correlation in the composition of plant and AM fungal communities
May 2016
New paper is asking how efficiently plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi disperse into early successional ecosystems, and which, if either of the two, symbiotic partner drives the successional dynamics. To study that, samples were collected from successional series in two islands in Eastern Baltic Sea. In the study sites, plant and AM fungal communities were strongly correlated at small spatial and temporal scales. The results of this study suggest that AM fungi may drive plant community composition.
Garcia de Leon, D.; Moora, M.; Öpik, M.; Neuenkamp, L.; Gerz, M.; Jairus, T.; Vasar, M.; Bueno, C. G.; Davison, J. & Zobel, M. 2016. Symbiont dynamics during ecosystem succession: co-occurring plant and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities. FEMS Microbiology Ecology doi:10.1093/femsec/fiw097.
Mari Moora was a keynote speaker of the POPBIO
May 2016
Our workgroup member Mari Moora was asked to be a keynote speaker of the 29th POPBIO conference in Trebon, Czech Republic on 5-7 May. The POPBIO is a conference for plant ecologists studying plant populations in context. Mari spoke about the role of AM symbiosis in the life of plants’ and plant communities.
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