We investigated the influence of tilling, N fertilization and crop stage on arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) fungal species diversity in a wheat monoculture in the Pampa region of Argentina. Glomalean spores were isolated by wet sieving and decanting from conventionally tilled and nontilled soils cropped with wheat with or without N fertilization, at three phenological stages of the crop (tilling, flowering and grain filling) and fallow. Morphological characterization yielded at least 24 AM fungi taxa in the field samples, belonging to six genera of AMF: Acaulospora Archaeospora, Entrophospora, Gigaspora, Glomus and Scutellospora. Tilling and fertilization treatments did not result in decreased spore biodiversity. Wheat phenology influenced AM communities, with highest spore biodiversity during grain filling.

composition can influence ecosystemic processes either through affecting plant community composition and thus its processes rates, or soil microbial communities, which are directly involved in nutrient cycling (Rillig 2004). According to Pärtel et al. (2016), soil microorganisms are considered a potentially suitable target for studying regional and local effects on diversity. The symbiosis with AMF not only increases nutrient uptake by the plant of mainly phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) in exchange for plant-assimilated carbon (C), but also improves the tolerance of plants to various biotic and abiotic stresses such as pathogens, salinity, and drought (Smith and Read 2008). External factors (abiotic and biotic) and intrinsic properties of species (dispersal ability, rates of speciation and extinction) affect the AMF geographical distributions (Chaudhary et al. 2008). For instance, the abiotic factors of temperature and precipitation constrain AMF occurrence (Davison et al. 2015) while biotic ones such as host preferences determine the rhizospheric AMF community (Senés-Guerrero and Schüßler 2016; Soteras et al. 2016). Moreover, anthropogenic activities like agricultural practices that alter soil conditions could influence the occurrence of AM fungal taxa (Cofré et al. 2017). At the same time, either external or internal factors may indirectly influence each other, causing changes in AMF taxa occurrence and distribution (Chaudhary et al. 2008). Currently, an increasing number of studies attempt at unravelling the worldwide geographical patterns of AMF (

We investigated the influence of tilling, N fertilization and crop stage on arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) fungal species diversity in a wheat monoculture in the Pampa region of Argentina. Glomalean spores were isolated by wet sieving and decanting from conventionally tilled and nontilled soils cropped with wheat with or without N fertilization, at three phenological stages of the crop (tilling, flowering and grain filling) and fallow. Morphological characterization yielded at least 24 AM fungi taxa in the field samples, belonging to six genera of AMF: Acaulospora Archaeospora, Entrophospora, Gigaspora, Glomus and Scutellospora. Tilling and fertilization treatments did not result in decreased spore biodiversity. Wheat phenology influenced AM communities, with highest spore biodiversity during grain filling.

No abstract

Arbuscular-mycorrhizal internal structures (i.e. total root colonization, arbuscules, vesicles) and external structures (i.e. spore density), and Glomeromycota spore morphotypes, were evaluated in wheat severely infected with Mycosphaerella graminicola - the causal agent of Septoria leaf blotch. Plots in which the infection was controlled with a commercial fungicide at recommended field doses, were also examined. The commercial fungicide used was an admixture of trifloxistrobin and tebuconazole. No negative effects of the fungicide application on arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) were found. The M. graminicola fungicidal treatment actually favoured the formation of arbuscules and AMF spores, as there was a selective increase in the density of spores belonging to the glomoid morphotype. Arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi have an absolute dependence on the carbon provided by the plant. A severe foliar disease leading to a diminished carbon supply to the roots would generate decreases in carbon availability. Such decreases would strongly affect mycorrhizal associations and development. Furthermore, the change in the green-leaf area produced by a severe foliar disease and/or a reversal of that condition through fungicide treatment could result in shifts in the composition of the AMF community so as to favour glomoid morphotypes. Glomoid species have been previously considered as r-strategists