Abstract guidelines

Both professionals and students are invited to submit an abstract to the Biennial Conference that addresses one or more of the conference’s interest areas. Contributed abstracts will be selected using the following criteria: (1) relevance to the conference’s theme and interest areas, (2) relevance to the Southwest, and (3) scientific merit or contribution to the field.

• Clearly indicate your preference: oral session or poster.
• Author(s) must select at least one topic/interest area from the list below that best describes the contents of their abstract.
• Each presenting author may submit no more than two abstracts.
• Once submitted, abstracts will be considered final.
• Abstracts may be no longer than 300 words; abstracts exceeding this limit will not be considered.
• Abstracts should be prepared as a Microsoft Word document, using 12 pt ‘Times New Roman’ font and single line spacing. If authors do not have access to Microsoft Word, abstracts may be submitted in the body of an email.
• Please indicate your status: professional or student (see example below). Students must indicate their student status to be considered for prizes and awards.

Interest areas

1. Animal Ecology
2. Aquatic Ecosystems
3. Conservation Management and Planning
4. Cultural Resources Management
5. Drought and Climate Change Impacts
6. Energy Development and Wildlife
7. Fire Ecology and Fire Response
8. Native Plant Conservation
9. Nonnative Species
10. Reptiles and Amphibians
11. Restoration and Preservation
12. Terrestrial and Riparian Plant Ecology
13. Other

Abstract example

Presenting author’s email: km325@nau.edu
Preference: Poster session
Theme: Nonnative species management
Status: Student

Disrupting mycorrhizal mutualisms: a potential mechanism by which exotic tamarisk outcompetes native cottonwoods

MEINHARDT, K.A. ^1,2 and C.A. Gehring²

¹School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 USA

²Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 USA

Abstract: The disruption of mutualisms between plants and mycorrhizal fungi is a potentially powerful mechanism by which invasives can negatively impact native species. We provide several lines of evidence indicating that invasive tamarisk (Tamarix sp.) negatively affects native cottonwoods (Populus fremontii) by disrupting their associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi. At a field site in the early stages of tamarisk invasion, cottonwoods with tamarisk neighbors had reduced EM colonization and altered EM fungal community composition relative to cottonwoods with native neighbors, leading to reductions in EM propagule abundance in the soil beneath tamarisk. Similarly, AM colonization of cottonwoods was reduced with a tamarisk neighbor, but there were no significant changes in AM fungal spore communities or propagule abundance. Root colonization by nonmycorrhizal fungi, including potential pathogens, was higher in cottonwoods with tamarisk neighbors. A greenhouse experiment in which AM and EM inoculation and plant neighbor were manipulated in a fully factorial design showed that cottonwoods benefited from mycorrhizas, especially EM, in terms of shoot biomass when grown with a conspecific, but shoot biomass was similar to that of nonmycorrhizal controls when cottonwoods were grown with a tamarisk neighbor. These results are partially explained by a reduction in EM but not AM colonization of cottonwoods by a tamarisk neighbor. Tamarisk neighbors negatively affected cottonwood specific leaf area, but not chlorophyll content, in the field. We measured soil chemistry in the field and the growth response of an EM fungus (Hebeloma crustuliniforme) to salt-amended media in the laboratory. Tamarisk increased both NO3− concentrations and electrical conductivity 2.5-fold beneath neighboring cottonwoods in the field. Salt-amended media did not affect the growth of H. crustuliniforme. Our findings demonstrate that a nonnative species, even in the early stages of invasion, can negatively affect a native species by disrupting its mycorrhizal symbioses.

Abstract submission 

Please send you contributed abstract to Biennial.Conference@nau.edu no later than June 1, 2022. Decisions will be announced no later than June 15, 2022.

If you are submitting an abstract for an invited or special session, please send your abstract to the session organizer. The session organizer will determine presentation order and send their session packages to conference organizers to avoid confusion. Thank you!