American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2022, 13, 205-222 https://www.scirp.org/journal/ajps ISSN Online: 2158-2750 ISSN Print: 2158-2742 DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2022.132013 Feb. 22, 2022 205 American Journal of Plant Sciences A Systematic Review of Terrestrial Plant Invasion Mechanisms Mediated by Microbes and Restoration Implications K. Dawkins, J. Mendonca, O. Sutherland, N. Esiobu Microbial Biotech Lab, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA Abstract Terrestrial invasive plant species continue to wreak havoc on a global eco- nomic and ecological scale. With the advent of climate change and pending future catastrophes, the spread of resilient invasive plants will only increase exponentially. Here, the search continues for a better understanding of the below-ground microbially driven mechanisms involved in plant invasion where other above-ground mechanisms have been exhausted. Microbes go- vern the world around us and interact with every living and non-living facet of the world. To reinforce the important underpinnings of the role of micro- organisms in plant invasion, a systematic review of recently published articles was undertaken. Using the ScienceDirect database, five (5) search queries were used to generate 1221 research articles. After a two-step reduction was made based on relevance of the articles, a final total of 59 articles were re- trieved. An additional 18 relevant articles were also assessed through the PubMed database for analysis to account for other invasive plants. Thirty-seven (37) invasive species were investigated where soil physiochemical and micro- bial community structure changes were most prevalent (32% & 39% respec- tively) while enhanced mutualism, allelopathy and pathogen accumulation were reported less (16%, 10% & 3% respectively). In all invasive species as- sessed, the impact on plant invasion and inability of the native plants to compete was due to specific microbial associations of the invasive plant or disruption of the soil microbial community. This microbial community shift coincided with changes in physiochemical properties of the soil and the sub- sequent negative soil feedback for native plants. There is still an expanding potential for the use of biocontrol agents to aid restoration once the under- pinnings of biotic resistance and enemy release are understood in a microbial and physiochemical context. The active and functional microbial community structure of the invasive plant rhizosphere and adjacent soil in its native and non-native region can offer a better inference of how they can be controlled How to cite this paper: Dawkins, K., Mendonca, J., Sutherland, O. and Esiobu, N. (2022) A Systematic Review of Terre- strial Plant Invasion Mechanisms Mediated by Microbes and Restoration Implications. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 13, 205-222. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2022.132013 Received: December 21, 2021 Accepted: February 19, 2022 Published: February 22, 2022 Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access