Understanding how invasive plants adapt to variable habitats can improve mangement of invasive populations and prediction of potential invasions. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.), an invasive annual grass, shows evidence of genotype-linked local adaptation, to a wide range of climate conditions. 

This project asks if root architecture and the rhizosphere prokaryotic microbiome community composition are similarly associated with genotype and collection site climate. 

Root-rhizosphere samples of 14 genotypes were collected from a common garden in Idaho, USA. Root architecture was scanned and quantified, and 16s rRNA sequencing was performed on DNA extracted from the rhizosphere. 

Principal coordinates analysis shows the drivers of variation in root system architecture, which reinforces a well-characterized trade-off in the root economic spectrum. Neither the root system architecture PCA nor a principal components analysis of the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity matrix of ASVs from the prokaryotic 16s rRNA V4 region show trends based on the genotype or days-to-flowering. However, we found that root traits and the beta diversity of the prokaryotic microbiome are associated (p = 0.049), and found associations between variation in belowground traits and sample position in the common garden.