Only around 4% of original tallgrass prairie remains today, but represent a diverse ecosystem with several ecosystem services. At KU, we have access to several remaining and human-impacted prairies. I take advantage of this prairie ecosystem to ask additional questions about anthropogenic impact on plant-microbe interactions. Below are two major studies I've been working on since I arrived at KU. Most of this work wouldn't be possible without the amazing help both in the lab and the field of Josh Schemanski, an undergraduate student involved in our lab (see more below).

plant pathogen composition along climate gradients

Although soil pathogens are harmful to individual plants, they can help support the maintenance of overall plant diversity. So far, there has been relatively little work on how pathogenic plant soil microbes are affected by global climate change and human land use. Because of their close relationship with plants, the responses of these pathogenic plant soil microbe to climate may mediate plant responses. In this project, we examine the impact of human land use and global change on soil pathogen community structure in tallgrass prairies. In this project, we examined the community structure of two soil pathogenic groups-fungal pathogens and oomycetes- at paired sites of remnant and disturbed prairies across a naturally occurring precipitation and temperature gradient in the Midwestern USA. ​ ​

evolution of mycorrhizal response & induced resistance to pathogens

The mycorrhizal fungi I focus on are mostly known for their transfer of nutrients to their plant host, but also help in pathogen resistance through something called ‘mycorrhizal induced resistance’. Because it has been shown that disturbed landscapes have a degraded mycorrhizal fungal community available to plants, we are isolating these distinct communities (in remnant and disturbed, old field, sites) and looking at the differential impact these mycorrhizal communities have on two populations (from these two sites) of the same plant species in terms of pathogen resistance. The core of this work is meant to determine whether distinct, degraded, mycorrhizal communities in disturbed communities lead to the indirect consequence of reduced pathogen resistance. In addition, we are interested in seeing if there are evolutionary changes that alter mycorrhizal induced resistance of the native prairie plants that are in old field sites. We have conducted the initial greenhouse experiment to see if there is differential mycorrhizal response in these two plant populations. We have cultured root fungi and oomycetes and have completed two experiments aimed at testing pathogenicity. Ultimately, we plan to run the mycorrhizal induced resistance experiment.

​Special thanks to Theo Michaels and Courtney Masterson for volunteering their time  introducing me to these plants and bringing me out to the field!
Haley Burrill came to Kansas in 2018, after completing her BS in Plant Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2020, she completed her Master's work. Haley stayed in the lab to pursue her PhD, analyzing the response of microbial communities to plant species richness and phylogenetic relatedness, as well as exploring pathogen accumulation in both invasive species monocultures and native prairie restorations.

For this project, Haley will be leading the experiment testing differential mycorrhizal induced resistance between remnant and post-agricultural sites.
Josh Schemanski received his Bachelor's of Science in Biochemistry at the University of Kansas. He began working working in the Bever/Schulz lab in April 2017 as a student assistant on several projects with Camille. His work primarily involves the preparation of DNA libraries for sequencing with Illumina Next Generation Sequencing technology.

For this project, Josh worked on library preparation for sequencing, developing bioinfomatical analyses, and manuscript preparation. He also conducted the first round of seed collection and set up  an initial mycorrhizal response experiment in the Spring of 2019.