Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity in soils underlying moss biocrusts in coal mining subsidence areas.

Abstract

The potentially symbiotic mycorrhizal associations dominated by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi have become a new topic in bioremediation research in response to global change. Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) play an important role in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. However, AM fungal diversity in the soils underlying moss biocrusts in coal mining subsidence areas remains poorly understood. Here, samples of the soil underlying moss biocrusts in an area inoculated with an AM fungus (AM-BS) and an uninoculated area (CK-BS) plus soil samples from an uninoculated bare area (CK-NBS) were collected from the subsidence area of Shendong Daliuta mine at Yulin, northwest China. AM fungal community diversity indices were maximum in AM-BS, intermediate in CK-BS, and minimum in CK-NBS (P < 0.05). In addition, redundancy analysis (RDA) indicates that the importance of moss biocrust to soil properties followed the sequence: soil water content (SWC) > glomalin-related soil protein (TG) > available phosphorus (Olsen-P) > soil organic matter (SOM) > easily extractable glomalin-related soil protein (EEG) > pH > available nitrogen (alkali-N). SWC, alkali-N, Olsen-P, and SOM were significantly related to the abundance of Glomus and Claroideoglomus, and TG, EEG, and pH were positively related to Diversisipora. In summary, inoculation with the exotic AM fungus and moss biocrust cover created a eutrophic microhabitat for AM fungi in the soils underlying moss biocrusts in the coal mining subsidence area.