The interaction between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and soil phosphorus availability influences plant community productivity and ecosystem stability

Abstract

Summary1. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can influence plant community composition and diversity. Previous research has shown that the addition of nutrients reduces the effectiveness of AMF. However, the ways in which soil nutrient availability and AMF interact and affect plant community productivity and ecosystem stability are still poorly understood. 2. We examined the impact of AMF suppression and phosphorus (P) addition on plant diversity, community productivity and temporal stability (TS) in a field experiment. AMF root colonization and the concentration of an AMF-specific phospholipid fatty acid were significantly reduced after application of the fungicide benomyl as a soil drench. 3. The TS of the plant community was higher in communities without benomyl application compared with communities with benomyl application indicating that AMF contribute to the TS of plant communities. AMF suppression increased productivity at the plant species, functional group and community levels under high P addition rates. At the zero P addition rate, AMF did not affect plant community productivity, as the dominant species Artemisia frigida was more abundant in control plots with AMF, while the subdominant species Stipa krylovii was more abundant in the benomyltreated plots with reduced AMF abundance. Compensatory effects between C 3 grasses and non-N 2 -fixing forbs were observed in the control plots with AMF along the gradient of P addition rates, but these effects were not detected among plant species in the benomyl-treated plots under AMF suppression above an addition rate of 4.76 P 2 O 5 m À2 year À1 . Although AMF suppression did not influence the diversity of the plant communities, it did decrease the diversity of N 2 -fixing forbs at the zero P addition rate and above an addition rate of 18.90 g P 2 O 5 m À2 year À1 , indicating that AMF play key roles in the maintenance of N 2 -fixing forbs at these P addition rates. P addition led to biodiversity losses at application rates below 2.36 g P 2 O 5 m À2 year À1 at the community level.4. Synthesis. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and soil P availability interact to influence the productivity and TS of a plant community by mediating compensatory effects among plant species and functional groups.

Dynamics of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community structure and functioning along a nitrogen enrichment gradient in an alpine meadow ecosystem

“…Benomyl was chosen because it has been shown to effectively suppress AM fungal colonization but has small effects on plants and other soil microorganisms (Hartnett & Wilson, ; O'Connor et al ., ), and benomyl application has been used successfully to test the functions of AM fungal communities in field studies (e.g. O'Connor et al ., ; Callaway et al ., ; Yang et al ., ).…”

Phosphorus and mowing improve native alfalfa establishment, facilitating restoration of grassland productivity and diversity

“…Diversity was estimated using Shannon's diversity index, where H = −∑ Pi ln Pi , and Pi represents the number of each individual species in the total number of individuals (Shannon, ). Temporal stability was defined as the ratio of the average aboveground community biomass for all 3 years (2014–2016) to its standard deviation (Tilman, Reich, & Knops, ; Yang et al, ). Species asynchrony was estimated by using a community‐wide measure (Michel, ), , where φ b is species synchrony, σ 2 is the temporal variance of aboveground grassland community biomass, and σ i is the standard deviation in aboveground biomass of species i in a community with S species.…”

Direct and indirect effects of climate change on soil microbial and soil microbial‐plant interactions: What lies ahead?

“…Jing et al, unpublished manuscript). For example, belowground arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity can influence aboveground plant diversity, percent plant cover, soil aggregation, soil moisture, and soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration (Van der Heijden et al 1998, Wilson et al 2009, Yang et al 2014. Further, when under stress diverse bacterial communities have a more stable biomass because they contain a larger number of organisms that are tolerant to stressors (Awasthi et al 2014).…”