Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Enhance Plant Diversity, Density and Productivity of Spring Ephemeral Community in Desert Ecosystem

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form intimate associations with the roots of about 85% of all terrestrial plants, and can greatly increase a plant's uptake of soil nutrients and have been shown to influence plant diversity in several ecosystems. A lot of studies have reported the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizas on plant density, species diversity, richness and productivity in desert herbland in Gurbantonggut desert, China. Here, we conduct a mycorrhizal functional study by suppressing AM fungi by applying the fungicide benomyl as a soil drench in soil cores and field in-situ experiment. The mycorrhiza-responsiveness of the dominant species Erodium oxyrrhynchum is assessed in intact soil cores containing the indigenous AM fungi. The soil-cores experiment displayed E. oxyrrhynchum to have a significant positive shoot and root growth response, and this is in response to the abundance of the indigenous AM fungal colonisation. The field experiment indicates the total aboveground dry biomass is negatively influenced by the suppression of AM fungi, though, no significant effect produced in the dominant and common plant species. The fungal suppression also affected density, species diversity and richness. The density of non-mycorrhizal plant Alyssum linifolium increases significantly in the treatment of suppressed AM fungi. The spore density decreases significantly in benomyl-treated plots. Our results showed that AM fungi were very important in desert ecosystem for the maintaining of plant biodiversity, richness and productivity.

Host-Specific Effects of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on Two Caragana Species in Desert Grassland

“…Our first hypothesis was that native AMF inoculation would enhance plant performance. In this study, C. korshinskii plants showed increased shoot biomass when inoculated with native AM fungal communities, which was in line with previous report [50]. However, the effect of AMF inoculation also depended heavily on the host plant identity as has been reported [51].…”

The Function of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Associated with Drought Stress Resistance in Native Plants of Arid Desert Ecosystems: A Review

“…Hence, fungal species are crucial constituents in supporting and maintaining plant functions and performance in a wide range of ecological systems. Zhao et al [90] report that AMF species play a significant role in desert ecosystems by maintaining plant biodiversity, richness and development. AMF impact community structure by altering plant adaptation to restricted resources.…”

Distribution of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Fungi (AM Fungi) in different plants within tailings deposition areas of Freeport Indonesia, Timika, Central Papua, Indonesia

“…Furthermore, it is important in the agricultural growth, productivity, and quality (Chen et al 2018) of plantation and forestry crops, especially those cultivated on less fertile soils. It has an essential biological role and contributes to improving nutrition and plant growth (Diagne et al 2020), biological protection (Azco ń-Aguilar andBarea 1996;Rouphael et al 2015;Lin et al 2021), plant resistance to drought (Abdel-Salam et al 2018;Begum et al 2019;Li et al 2019;Zhang et al 2019), synergy with other microorganisms particularly bacteria (Christensen and Jacobsen 1993;Artursson et al 2005), as well to maintain plant diversity in different ecosystems (Heijden et al 1998;Klironomos et al 2000;Bagyaraj and Revanna 2017;Horn et al 2017;Zhaoyong et al 2017), and to improve soil quality through its structure, texture, and plant health (Zou et al 2016;Thirkell et al 2017). These fungi also assist the revegetation process by increasing mineral solubility, nutrient uptake, binding soil particles into stable aggregates, and increasing tolerance to drought and heavy metal toxicity (Hildebrandt 2007;Amir et al 2013;Asmelash et al 2016;Chen et al 2018;Husna et al 2019).…”