Just as humans rely on a healthy gut microbiome to withstand illness, plants rely on a healthy root microbiome to withstand environmental stress. This is because soil microbes (bacteria and fungi) can improve plant stress tolerance and uptake of water and nutrients. We use experimental and observational approaches to understand how soil microbes influence plant physiological responses to stress. Our latest work focuses on blue grama grass and conifer seedlings.
|
How does root exudate concentration and composition change with increasing drought severity?
We exposed blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) to control, mild, and severe drought treatments and monitored physiological and root exudate responses. With increasing drought severity, root exudate total C and organic C increased concurrently with declining predawn leaf water potential and photosynthesis. Root exudate composition (including compounds that are known to alter plant drought responses and the rhizosphere microbiome) mirrored the physiological gradient of drought severity treatments. Despite reducing C uptake, these plants actively invested C to root exudates with increasing drought severity. Ulrich et al. (2022) Scientific Reports |