The Effects of Warming and Nitrogen Application on the Stoichiometric Characteristics of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Forest Ecosystems

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are one of the most widely distributed microorganisms in all terrestrial ecosystems, playing an important role in supplying nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to plants and in nutrient cycling. The contribution discusses the responses of rises in temperature and atmospheric N deposition to stoichiometric features of plant–soil–litter–microorganism–soil hydrolases in forest ecosystems. It summarizes the role that AM fungi play in the context of global change in carbon (C), N, and P stoichiometric characteristics of forest plant–soil systems. In this study, under conditions of warming with N application, it said the AM fungi will strongly influence the stoichiometric characteristics of C, N, and P in forest ecosystems. In addition to that, the presence of AM fungi may weaken certain impacts of global change on nutrient limitations in plants, increasing their plant dependency on mycorrhizal symbionts. AM fungi also seem to control soil nutrient transformation but simultaneously enhance soil nutrient stability, accelerate litter decomposition, and shorten the cycling time of litter C, N, and P.