Abstract
Ectomycorrhiza (ECM) plays an important role in plant nitrogen (N) nutrition and regulates plant responded to climate warming. We conducted a field experiment in a natural forest and a plantation in the eastern Tibetan Plateau to estimate the warming effects of open-top chambers (OTC) on ECM and N nutrition of Picea asperata seedlings. Four-year warming significantly decreased ECM colonization, ECM fungal biomass, fine root vigor, and the N concentration of leaf, stem and coarse root, but significantly increased fine root N concentration and N content of leaf, stem, fine root and whole plant in natural forest. Contrarily, warming induced no obvious change in most of these parameters in plantation. Moreover, warming decreased rhizospheric soil inorganic N content in both forests. Our results showed that four-year warming was not beneficial for ECM colonization of P. asperata seedlings in the two forests, and the seedlings in natural forest were more sensitive and flexible to experimental warming than in plantation. The changes of ECM colonization and fine root biomass for effective N uptake would be good for plant growth and remit N leaching under future warming in natural forest.
Highlights
Negative effects of ECM colonization on the root nutrient uptake[12], photosynthetic efficiency[13] and host plant growth[14] were found
ECM colonization and ECM fungal biomass was strongly influenced by forest type
ECM colonization was remarkably higher, but ECM fungal biomass was less in natural forest compared with those in plantation
Summary
Negative effects of ECM colonization on the root nutrient uptake[12], photosynthetic efficiency[13] and host plant growth[14] were found. It was reported that experimental warming enhanced photosynthetic rates and biomass[34], and changed plant nutrition by altering root growth and physiology of P. asperata[35]. These studies ignored the potential changes in ECM colonization, abundance, and the relationships of ECM and root physiology and N nutrition under warming. On the basis of previous studies, we hypothesized that ECM colonization of P. asperata would increase and positively related with plant N content and root physiology under OTC warming condition, and the responses of ECM colonization and plant N nutrition to warming were different in the two forests
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