Water Level and Salinity Drive Community Structure of Culturable Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) Endophytes in Southern Louisiana

Little is known about effects of salinity and flooding on plant symbionts, including baldcypress trees (Taxodium distichum ), the dominant trees in many swamp ecosystems in the southeastern US. In this study, we characterize the culturable fungal and bacterial endophytes in the roots and leaves of b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Wetlands (Wilmington, N.C.) N.C.), 2019-04, Vol.39 (2), p.329-335
Main Authors: Kimbrough, Elizabeth R., Berlow, Mae L., Van Bael, Sunshine A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteria
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Coastal Sciences
Community composition
Community structure
Ecology
Endophytes
Environmental Management
Ethanol
Flooding
Floods
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Fungi
General Wetland Science
Hydrogeology
Landscape Ecology
Leaves
Life Sciences
Monitoring systems
Roots
Salinity
Salinity effects
Sea level
Sea level rise
Storm damage
Symbionts
Taxodium distichum
Taxonomy
Trees
Variables
Water levels
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Summary:Little is known about effects of salinity and flooding on plant symbionts, including baldcypress trees (Taxodium distichum ), the dominant trees in many swamp ecosystems in the southeastern US. In this study, we characterize the culturable fungal and bacterial endophytes in the roots and leaves of baldcypress trees at four sites with varying levels of salinity and flooding regimes in southeastern Louisiana. Both salinity and flooding (water level) contributed to endophytic community composition of leaves and roots. We found that diversity and endophyte isolation frequency were higher in roots than in leaves, with leaf bacteria being almost negligible. Our study demonstrates a connection between environmental variables, plant symbionts, and a key restoration species. This work may help in predicting future outcomes of sea level rise for endophytes communities in baldcypress and other wetland plants.
ISSN:0277-5212
1943-6246
DOI:10.1007/s13157-018-1098-2