Forest tree seedlings, ornamentals and seedlings for home gardening, shipping pallets, and even firewood can cross thousands of miles and international borders before reaching their final destination, and all can carry an invisible community with them, pathogens and mutualists alike. As long as they don’t cause economic or human-visible ecological problems, these microscopic associates are generally ignored. Our work looks at the fungal communities that accompany imported plants, tracking their establishment (or lack of it), the changes in the communities around them, and the health of their hosts.
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