Effects of the invasive plant garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) on bacterial communities in a northern hardwood forest soil

We compared the effects of the invasive plant Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) and 2 native plants on soil bacterial communities in a mature mesophytic forest. Soil samples were collected from plant patches containing either Alliaria or the native plants Allium tricoccum (wild leek) and Gallium triflorum (bedstraw). Since Alliaria litter contains secondary compounds that have reported antimicrobial properties, soil was collected outside the root zone of the plants but within the plant patches such that the soil would have been influenced by the litter of the respective plant species but not by plant roots. DNA was extracted from the soil samples and used to amplify the 16S rRNA gene region using bacterial specific primers. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) profiles of each bacterial community were used to examine differences in bacterial communities among the plant species and between August and April sampling. Bacterial richness, evenness, and diversity were not significantly affected by plant species. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS) suggested that differences existed between August and April sampling, but that plant species litter exerted a much weaker effect on soil bacterial communities. Soil physiochemical conditions were significantly correlated with soil bacterial communities and may underlie the observed seasonal changes in bacterial communities.