Table 1.

Dominant endophytes from plants growing across salinity gradients.

Plant species and location	Soil conductivity*	Endophyte morphotype**	Salt stress category***	Endophyte identity****
Pickleweed (Salicornia pacifica), Picnic Cove, Shaw Island
Low Tide Zone	2,750 uS/cm	A	Extreme	Phoma sp.
Mid Tide Zone	1,282 uS/cm	A/B	High	Phoma sp./F. culmorum
High Tide Zone	701 uS/cm	B	Moderate	F. culmorum
Dunegrass ( Leymus mollis ), Cedar Rocks, Shaw Island
Beach	436 μS/cm	B	Moderate	F. culmorum
Slope	249 μS/cm	C	Low	Fusarium redolens
Upper Meadow	84 μS/cm	D	Low	Alternaria sp.
Dunegrass ( Leymus mollis ), Cowlitz Bay, Waldron Island
Beach	364 μS/cm	B	Moderate	F. culmorum
Slope	32 μS/cm	E	Low	Fusarium sp. 1
Upper	43 μS/cm	F	Low	Fusarium sp. 2
Saltgrass ( Distichlis spicata ), Cowlitz Bay, Waldron Island
Low Tide Zone	23,70 μS/cm	A	Extreme	Phoma sp.
Mid Tide Zone	1,801 μS/cm	A/B	High	Phoma sp./F. culmorum
High Tide Zone	702 μS/cm	B	Moderate/High	Fusarium culmorum
Spartina ( Spartina anglica ), Camano Island
Tidal Channel	4,000 μS/cm	A	Extreme	Phoma sp.
Slope	3,628 μS/cm	A/B	Extreme	Phoma sp./F. culmorum
Mud Flat	1,600 μS/cm	B	Moderate/High	F. culmorum

Salinity measurements were taken using a conductivity meter from soils in a central point where plants grew in abundance (^*) and 10–30 plants were collected from each population for endophyte analysis. Endophytes were first placed into morphotype groups after microscopic analysis (^**). Deionized water equates to 1.0 μS/cm, rainwater average is 50–100 μS/cm, and seawater is approximately 50,000 μS/cm. Salt stress habitats were categorized as extreme at conductivity reads <2,500 μS/cm, high at 700–2,499 μS/cm, moderate at 200–699 μS/cm, and low at a range of 0–199 μS/cm (^***). Isolates were then further identified using DNA sequence analysis (^****).