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Geographic Variation in the Allelopathic Potential of American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) Emily A. Neidhardt Faculty Mentor: Dr. David B. Vandermast Elon.

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Presentation on theme: "Geographic Variation in the Allelopathic Potential of American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) Emily A. Neidhardt Faculty Mentor: Dr. David B. Vandermast Elon."— Presentation transcript:

1 Geographic Variation in the Allelopathic Potential of American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) Emily A. Neidhardt Faculty Mentor: Dr. David B. Vandermast Elon University

2 The Nature of American Beech  Two races  Red & Gray Beech  Gray Beech  Grows clonally  Few genets, hundreds of ramets  Potential input of allelopathogens is high

3 Allelopathy  Chemical warfare between plants  A mechanism for changing forest diversity  Competitive advantage  A subset of secondary metabolites  Black walnut (Juglans nigra)  American beech is allelopathic, but less well known as such

4 American Beech & Allelopathy  Allelopathy is a factor in explaining “beech gaps” in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Poteat and Vandermast 2010)  Stands of American beech become monodominant  Beech leachate shown to lower leaf area/biomass in sugar maple seedlings (Hane et al. 2003)

5 The Big Picture  Is allelopathy in American beech a species- wide trait or is it limited geographically to one race of American beech?

6 The Big Picture  If allelopathogen production is under heavy selective pressure…  No effects from red beech should be observed on spruce and fir because they do not interact within the studied area  If the trait is species-wide…  Inhibitory effects could occur on germination of spruce and fir

7 Experimental Design  Preparation  Leachate production L1 = 1200 g/15 L L2 = 600 g, 15 L  Collection of red beech forest soils  Cold stratification of red spruce and Fraser fir seeds

8 Experimental Design  Treatment groups  Commercial topsoil used as control for beech forest soil  Deionized H2O used as control for leachate  Red spruce, Fraser fir, and black simpson lettuce seeds  Germination data and aboveground biomass recorded

9 Results – Germination

10 Results – Above Ground Biomass


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