Nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria act as a global filter for plant establishment on islands
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Issue Date
2022-11-10Author
Delavaux, Camille S.
Weigelt, Patrick
Magnoli, Susan M.
Kreft, Holger
Crowther, Thomas W.
Bever, James D.
Publisher
Nature Research
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Rights
© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Island biogeography has classically focused on abiotic drivers of species distributions. However, recent work has highlighted the importance of mutualistic biotic interactions in structuring island floras. The limited occurrence of specialist pollinators and mycorrhizal fungi have been found to restrict plant colonization on oceanic islands. Another important mutualistic association occurs between nearly 15,000 plant species and nitrogen-fixing (N-fixing) bacteria. Here, we look for evidence that N-fixing bacteria limit establishment of plants that associate with them. Globally, we find that plants associating with N-fixing bacteria are disproportionately underrepresented on islands, with a 22% decline. Further, the probability of N-fixing plants occurring on islands decreases with island isolation and, where present, the proportion of N-fixing plant species decreases with distance for large, but not small islands. These findings suggest that N-fixing bacteria serve as a filter to plant establishment on islands, altering global plant biogeography, with implications for ecosystem development and introduction risks.
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Citation
Delavaux, C.S., Weigelt, P., Magnoli, S.M. et al. Nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria act as a global filter for plant establishment on islands. Commun Biol 5, 1209 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04133-x
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