Current Projects
Feedbacks between genetic diversity and species diversity
Genetic diversity and species diversity are typically studied in isolation despite theory showing they likely influence one another. While previous theory identifies how competitive interactions can link genetic and species diversity, I showed that microbe-mediated plant-soil feedback (PSF) can also contribute to these linkages. I found that greater genetic diversity reduced the capacity for PSF to promote plant species diversity, and, for one of my two study species, greater species diversity reduced the capacity for PSF to promote genetic diversity within species (Bolin & Lau 2022 Ecology). Together, these patterns suggest that genetic and species diversity may weaken the ability of PSF to promote coexistence, and that PSF may dampen the negative effects of diversity loss by promoting diversity at other levels of biological organization. I am currently working on a theoretical modeling study to further explore how these dynamics affect plant community and population outcomes. Relevant paper:
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Biodiversity effects and niche differentiation
Biodiversity commonly promotes ecosystem functioning, and in some systems (e.g., the Jena experiment), evolution can amplify biodiversity effects through selection for increased niche differentiation in high diversity treatments. Because soil microbes commonly affect plant traits, often in environment-specific ways, my current work tests how soil microbes affect niche differentiation and biodiversity effects, and whether these effects depend on the soil moisture environment. By independently manipulating the soil moisture environment and the microbes plants are likely to encounter in those environments, I will be able to determine whether microbes are cryptic drivers of niche differentiation and biodiversity effects, potentially identifying yet another role for microbes in canonical ecological theory. |