Lena Reeves
Research Mentor: Aadia Moseley-Mccloud
Mentor Department: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, LSA
Author(s): Aadia Moseley-McCloud
Session: Afternoon Session (12:00 PM – 1:00 PM)
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Abstract
Dominant species have effects on ecosystems that are proportional to their biomass. Bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) is a dominant species in ecosystems across the globe, and commonly occurs in forest understories in northern Michigan. Bracken fern can impact light availability and soil moisture, which influences if and how well other species are able to establish themselves in a community. There is evidence that bracken fern are allelopathic, meaning they cultivate a soil environment that inhibits the growth of neighboring species. This suggests that in our system there may be a soil mediated process which is affecting seedlings like allelopathy. To explore how bracken fern allelopathy impacts other species in the community I asked the question: how does bracken fern allelopathy impact Acer rubrum seedling germination? To answer this question we set up a bioassay experiment in which we used a serial dilution of bracken fern leachate at 5%, 3.75%, 2.5%, 1.25%, and 0% (control) to water Acer rubrum seeds for 28 days.Overall, germination rates were low across all treatments, limiting our ability to detect treatment effects. In the future, this experiment should be pursued in a more conducive controlled environment where the co-variants of the controlled environment are better suited for germination (e.g., less drying of petri dishes). Successful bioassays, with a similar experimental design, have provided information about the magnitude of species specific allelopathic interactions and the context in which they occur.
