Abstract
Current climate change has led to latitudinal and altitudinal range expansions of numerous species. During such range expansions, plant species are expected to experience changes in interactions with other organisms, especially with belowground biota that have a limited dispersal capacity. Nematodes form a key component of the belowground food web as they include bacterivores, fungivores, omnivores and root herbivores. However, their community composition under climate change‐driven intracontinental range‐expanding plants has been studied almost exclusively under controlled conditions, whereas little is known about actual patterns in the field. Here, we use novel molecular sequencing techniques combined with morphological quantification in order to examine nematode communities in the rhizospheres of four range‐expanding and four congeneric native species along a 2,000 km latitudinal transect from South‐Eastern to North‐Western Europe. We tested the hypotheses that latitudinal shifts in nematode community composition are stronger in range‐expanding plant species than in congeneric natives and that in their new range, range‐expanding plant species accumulate fewest root‐feeding nematodes. Our results show latitudinal variation in nematode community composition of both range expanders and native plant species, while operational taxonomic unit richness remained the same across ranges. Therefore, range‐expanding plant species face different nematode communities at higher latitudes, but this is also the case for widespread native plant species. Only one of the four range‐expanding plant species showed a stronger shift in nematode community composition than its congeneric native and accumulated fewer root‐feeding nematodes in its new range. We conclude that variation in nematode community composition with increasing latitude occurs for both range‐expanding and native plant species and that some range‐expanding plant species may become released from root‐feeding nematodes in the new range.
Highlights
As a consequence of anthropogenic climate change, many species are naturally expanding their native range to higher latitudes or altitudes (Parmesan & Yohe, 2003; Rumpf et al, 2018; Steinbauer et al, 2018)
The disruptions of interactions between plants and such rhizosphere organisms that are caused by varying range expansion rates may have functional consequences for plant performance in the new range (Morriën, Engelkes, Macel, Meisner, & van der Putten, 2010; van der Putten, 2012)
Several intracontinental range‐expanding plant species seem to be less negatively affected by soil communities in their new than in their original range, suggesting that range expansion causes the release from natural enemies of the original range (De Frenne et al, 2014; Dostálek, Münzbergová, Kladivová, & Macel, 2015; van Grunsven, van der Putten, Bezemer, Berendse, & Veenendaal, 2010; Van Nuland, Bailey, & Schweitzer, 2017)
Summary
As a consequence of anthropogenic climate change, many species are naturally expanding their native range to higher latitudes or altitudes (Parmesan & Yohe, 2003; Rumpf et al, 2018; Steinbauer et al, 2018). The disruptions of interactions between plants and such rhizosphere organisms that are caused by varying range expansion rates may have functional consequences for plant performance in the new range (Morriën, Engelkes, Macel, Meisner, & van der Putten, 2010; van der Putten, 2012) Such changes in plant performance between the new and the original range have been observed in the case of plant introductions into novel continents by humans and are attributed to the release from specialized belowground natural enemies that are present in the original range. The actual shifts in soil biota potentially underlying these changes in range‐expanding plant performance have so far not been studied in the field
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