DOI

10.1128/msphere.00895-25

Abstract

Introduced invasive plants can alter the composition of resident soil microbial communities, which may disrupt ecosystem function and facilitate continued invasion success. Wavyleaf basketgrass (Oplismenus undulatifolius) is a high-risk, non-native invasive plant currently confined to the Mid-Atlantic United States but with the potential to colonize forest understory across the eastern United States. In this study, we characterized soil microbial communities from locations spanning the invaded range using amplicon sequencing to understand the impacts of wavyleaf basketgrass establishment on resident soil microbiomes. We compared the diversity and structure of microbial communities from invaded and uninvaded forest soils, as well from wavyleaf basketgrass rhizospheres. Invasion by wavyleaf basketgrass was associated with an increase in fungal diversity within sampling locations but a decrease in diversity across sampling locations. Changes in the relative abundance of specific sequence variants indicated a small number of resident microbes may be amplified in wavyleaf basketgrass rhizospheres. Finally, fungal alpha diversity was correlated with soil chemistry variables in uninvaded plots but not in invaded plots, and increased plant ground cover attributed to wavyleaf basketgrass invasion was positively correlated with fungal diversity. Together, these patterns suggest that wavyleaf basketgrass recruits diverse microbial associates from the environment, homogenizes soil microbiomes across invaded locations, and overrides existing environmental selection pressures exerted by soil chemistry profiles. Ongoing expansion of the species’ invaded range may produce similar impacts in new environments.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-29-2026

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2026 ASM

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