Home-field advantage? Consequences of local adaptation among plants, soil, and mycorrhizal fungi for species conservation
The project aims to test existence of local adaptations in orchid-fungus-soil tripartite system by reciprocal seed germination experiments with inoculations of soil by genotyped orchid mycorrhizal fungi and to create practical guidelines for in situ restoration of orchid populations.
The long‐term coexistence and co-evolution of terrestrial plants with associated soil microorganisms likely results in local co‐adaptations where growth and fitness of both symbionts are greatest in their shared soil environments. Local adaptation to biotic interactions may be particularly important for mycoheterotrophic plants that critically rely on mycorrhizal fungi for seed germination and subsequent growth, such as orchids. As knowledge on local adaptations in orchids is highly limited and might be critical for their successful restoration, we propose project testing local adaptations in orchids differing in fungal specificity using in vitro, pot culture and in situ reciprocal seed germination experiments. Seed sowing together with sympatric and allopatric genotyped fungal inoculants will provide straightforward test of possible adaptations in orchid-fungus-soil system disentangling all three components. Such experiment will be carried out for orchids for the first time. The results will be transformed into guidelines for managers of in situ restoration of orchid populations.
