Ericoid mycorrhizal shrubs alter the relationship between tree mycorrhizal dominance and soil carbon and nitrogen

Abstract

Abstract Plant–fungal associations strongly influence forest carbon and nitrogen cycling. The prevailing framework for understanding these relationships is through the relative abundance of arbuscular (AM) versus ectomycorrhizal (EcM) trees. Ericoid mycorrhizal (ErM) shrubs are also common in forests and interactions between co‐occurring ErM shrubs and AM and EcM trees could shift soil biogeochemical responses. Here we test hypotheses that the effects of ErM shrubs on soil carbon and nitrogen either extend or are redundant with those of EcM trees. Using regional vegetation inventory data (>3,500 plot observations) we evaluated the frequency, richness and relative abundance of ErM plants in temperate forests in the eastern United States and examined their relationship with EcM plant cover. We then used surface soil (7 cm) data from 414 plots within a single forest to analyse relationships between ErM plant cover, relative EcM tree basal area and soil carbon and nitrogen concentrations while accounting for other biogeochemical controls, such as soil moisture. At both scales, we found a positive relationship between ErM and EcM plants, and the majority of ErM plants were in the shrub layer. Within the forest site, ErM plants strongly modulated tree mycorrhizal dominance effects. We found negative relationships between EcM relative basal area and soil carbon and nitrogen concentrations, but these relationships were weak to negligible in the absence of ErM plants. Both EcM relative basal area and ErM plant cover were positively associated with the soil carbon‐to‐nitrogen ratio. However, this relationship was driven by relatively lower nitrogen for EcM trees and higher carbon for ErM plants. As such, the functional effects of ErM plants on soil biogeochemistry neither extended nor were redundant with those of EcM trees. Synthesis. We found that ErM shrubs strongly influenced the relationship between tree mycorrhizal associations and soil biogeochemistry, and the effects of ErM shrubs and EcM trees on carbon and nitrogen were functionally distinct. Our findings suggest that ErM shrubs could confound interpretation of AM versus EcM tree effects in ecosystems where they co‐occur but also bolster growing calls to consider mycorrhizal functional types as variables that strongly influence forest biogeochemistry.