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Changing Soils to Manage Plant Communities: Activated Carbon as a Restoration Tool in Ex‐arable Fields
Author(s) -
Kulmatiski Andrew
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
restoration ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.214
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1526-100X
pISSN - 1061-2971
DOI - 10.1111/j.1526-100x.2009.00632.x
Subject(s) - native plant , dominance (genetics) , plant community , allelopathy , arable land , introduced species , soil water , agronomy , biology , germination , weed , invasive species , microbial population biology , botany , environmental science , ecology , ecological succession , bacteria , biochemistry , genetics , gene , agriculture
Due to its potential to inhibit plant–microbe interaction and allelopathy, there is a growing interest in the use of activated carbon (AC) as a soil manipulation for native plant restoration. Here I describe the long‐term effects of AC on native and non‐native plant growth in the field and the short‐term effects of AC on soil microbial communities. I added AC (1% by mass) with or without native seed to plots in three ex‐arable fields dominated by non‐native plants in the Methow Valley, Washington, U.S.A. Six years after a single application, AC plus native seed addition restored native plant dominance by decreasing non‐native abundance from 34 ± 4% to 14 ± 2%, and increasing native abundance from 10 ± 2% to 42 ± 8%. Relative to non‐AC‐treated soils, AC decreased the abundance of the bacterial (16:0), fungal (18:1 ω9c, 18:1 ω6,9,12c), and mycorrhizal (16:1 ω5c) lipids that were associated with non‐native‐dominated soils. This research suggests that AC effects on plant growth might be due to a complex combination of its direct effects on heterotrophic, symbiotic, and pathogenic soil organisms as well as its ability to sequester allelochemicals. This research showed that soil manipulations may be a necessary component of native plant restoration because seed addition alone did not restore native plant dominance, but AC plus seed treatment did restore native plant dominance.