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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">Liliana Benitez et al., Disease Ecology, 2022</span><o:p style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></o:p><br>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">Abstract</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">Plant litter can alter ecosystems and promote plant invasions by altering resource availability, depositing phytotoxins, and transmitting microorganisms to living
plants. Transmission of microorganisms from invasive plant litter to live plants may gain importance as invasive plants, which often escape pathogens upon introduction to a new range, acquire new pathogens overtime. It is unclear, however, if invasive plant
litter affects native plant communities by promoting disease. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><i style="line-height: normal;">Microstegium vimineum</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">
is an invasive grass that suppresses native populations, in part through litter production, and has acquired new fungal leaf spot diseases since its introduction to the United States. In a greenhouse experiment, we evaluated how
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><i style="line-height: normal;">M. vimineum</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"> litter
and its pathogens mediated competition with the native grass </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><i style="line-height: normal;">Elymus virginicus</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">.
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><i style="line-height: normal;">M. vimineum</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"> litter
promoted disease on </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><i style="line-height: normal;">E. virginicus</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">
and suppressed establishment and biomass of both species. Litter had stronger negative effects on
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><i style="line-height: normal;">E. virginicus</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">
than </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><i style="line-height: normal;">M.vimineum</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">,
increasing the relative biomass of </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><i style="line-height: normal;">M. vimineum</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">.
Live plant competition reduced biomass of both species and live </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><i style="line-height: normal;">M. vimineum</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">
increased disease incidence on </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><i style="line-height: normal;">E. virginicus.</i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">
Altogether, invasive grass litter suppressed both species, ultimately favoring the invasive species in competition, and increased disease incidence on the native species.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">Link to article: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ecs2.3907</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></o:p></p>
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