Land use influences arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in the farming–pastoral ecotone of northern China

Abstract

Summary We performed a landscape‐scale investigation to compare the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities between grasslands and farmlands in the farming–pastoral ecotone of northern China. AMF richness and community composition were examined with 454 pyrosequencing. Structural equation modelling (SEM) and multivariate analyses were applied to disentangle the direct and indirect effects (mediated by multiple environmental factors) of land use on AMF. Land use conversion from grassland to farmland significantly reduced AMF richness and extraradical hyphal length density, and these land use types also differed significantly in AMF community composition. SEM showed that the effects of land use on AMF richness and hyphal length density in soil were primarily mediated by available phosphorus and soil structural quality. Soil texture was the strongest predictor of AMF community composition. Soil carbon, nitrogen and soil pH were also significantly correlated with AMF community composition, indicating that these abiotic variables could be responsible for some of the community composition differences among sites. Our study shows that land use has a partly predictable effect on AMF communities across this ecologically relevant area of China, and indicates that high soil phosphorus concentrations and poor soil structure are particularly detrimental to AMF in this fragile ecosystem.

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“…Plant and soil samples were collected according to the methods described by Xiang et al (2014). At each sampling site, four 1 × 1 m 2 quadrats were designated for vegetation survey.…”

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“…Similarly, in Northern China, Xiang et al (2014) found that the land use influence on AMF community composition was mediated by soil properties at a landscape-scale. Hazard et al (2013), by using Trifolium repens and Lolium perenne bait plants to compare AMF communities in the soil of 40 geo-graphically dispersed sites in Ireland representing different land uses and soil types, found that AMF community compo-sition was influenced by abiotic variables (pH, rainfall, and soil type), but not land use or geographical distance, suggest-ing that specific environmental variables of sites that differ within land uses have a stronger effect than land use itself on AMF communities.…”

“…Apart from these specific environmental factors, direct land use-related circumstances, such as tillage (which in-creases soil disturbance) or grazing (which removes above-ground plant biomass), also have been suggested as drivers of AMF community composition (e.g., Helgason et al 1998;Oehl et al 2010;Schnoor et al 2011;Stockinger et al 2014;Valyi et al 2015). A high number of studies specifically have addressed the impact of agricultural practices and changes in land use on either the composition of AMF communities (e.g., van der Gast et al 2011;Lin et al 2012;Lumini et al 2010;Verbruggen et al 2012;Dai et al 2013;Hazard et al 2013;Morris et al 2013;Moora et al 2014;Xiang et al 2014;Valyi et al 2015) or individual taxa (Bainard et al 2014;Jansa et al 2014). Experimental studies, however, usually are confined to one or a few sites, and therefore may have facilitated the identification of effects of specific agricultural practices at the expense of visibility of other (independent) effects such as soil type and geography (Jansa et al 2014).…”

“…At the regional and local scale, AMF communities have been demonstrated to respond to a variety of biotic and abiotic factors, including various aspects of land management that modify the physical and chemical characteristics of the soil and the plant cover/composition. Potential determinants of AMF diversity and community composition are the identity of the host plants (van der Heijden et al 1998;Bainard et al 2011;Liu et al 2012), soil type (Verbruggen et al 2012;Hazard et al 2013), soil pH Dumbrell et al 2010a;Hazard et al 2013;Bainard et al 2014;Xiang et al 2014), soil texture and nutrient concentrations (Lekberg et al 2007;Fitzsimons et al 2008;Bai et al 2009;Verbruggen et al 2012;Moebius-Clune et al 2013;Bainard et al 2014;Xiang et al 2014), and climate (Dumbrell et al 2011;Hazard et al 2013). Apart from these specific environmental factors, direct land use-related circumstances, such as tillage (which in-creases soil disturbance) or grazing (which removes above-ground plant biomass), also have been suggested as drivers of AMF community composition (e.g., Helgason et al 1998;Oehl et al 2010;Schnoor et al 2011;Stockinger et al 2014;Valyi et al 2015).…”

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“…Increased precipitation could significantly increase AM fungal root colonisation rate, spore density, and ERH density, decrease AM fungal diversity, and changed AM fungal community composition in grassland ecosystems (Li et al 2015; Gao et al 2016). Land use conversion from grassland to farmland significantly reduced soil AM fungal ERH density and richness, and altered AM fungal community composition (Xiang et al 2014). In addition, grass ( Elymus nutans, Avena sativa , and Vicia sativa ) plantation affected rhizosphere soil AM fungal ERH density, richness and community composition (Zheng et al 2016b).…”