Evaluating Plant-Microbe Associations in Response to Environmental Stressors to Enhance Salt Marsh Restoration

ABSTRACT Despite substantial contributions of ecosystem services, mutualistic plant-microbe associations in wetlands are severely threatened by human activities. Therefore, promoting positive plant-microbe associations underpins coastal wetland restoration, where human stressors and climate change challenge successful outcomes. This study examined how salinity stressors influence plant-microbe relationships, where we hypothesized that the presence of microbes would provide a rescue effect by buffering abiotic stressors and yielding higher plant biomass. We used a whole sediment inocula approach and exposed marsh cordgrass ( Sporobolus alterniflorus ) plugs to a factorial experiment with three levels of microbiome addition (microbial inocula, autoclaved microbial inocula, no microbe control) and two levels of salinity (