Abstract
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which form symbioses with most land plants, could benefit their hosts and potentially play important roles in revegetation of degraded lands. However, their application in revegetation of desert grasslands still faces challenges and uncertainties due to the unclear specificity of AMF-plant interactions. Here, Caragana korshinskii and Caragana microphylla were inoculated with either conspecific (home) or heterospecific (away) AM fungal communities from the rhizosphere of three common plant species (C. korshinskii, C. microphylla and Hedysarum laeve) in Kubuqi Desert, China. AMF communities of the inocula and their home and away effects on growth and nutrition status of two Caragana species were examined. Results showed that AMF communities of the three inocula from C. korshinskii, H. laeve and C. microphylla were significantly different, and were characterized by high abundance of Diversispora, Archaeospora, and Glomus, respectively. The shoot biomass, photosynthetic rate, foliar N and P contents of C. korshinskii only significantly increased under home AMF inoculation by 167.10%, 73.55%, 9.24%, and 23.87%, respectively. However, no significant effects of AMF on C. microphylla growth were found, regardless of home or away AMF. Positive correlations between C. korshinskii biomass and the abundance of AMF genus Diversispora were found. Our study showed strong home advantage of using native AMF community to enhance C. korshinskii growth in the desert and presented a potentially efficient way to use native AMF in restoration practices.
Highlights
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) provide benefits to their host plants [1,2] and show functional diversity assumed to have implications for revegetation of degraded lands [3,4,5]
The community structure of AMF associated with C. korshinskii and C. microphylla roots was significantly influenced by both inoculum sources (F = 1.558, p = 0.033) and plant species (F = 8.528, p = 0.001) according to PERMANOVA result
Our results showed that the home AMF treatment increased the biomass, N and P content of their plant host, indicating home advantage
Summary
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) provide benefits to their host plants [1,2] and show functional diversity assumed to have implications for revegetation of degraded lands [3,4,5]. Neutral or negative effects of AMF on plant growth in both greenhouse [16,17] and field experiments [18] were reported. The effects of AMF on plant growth seemed to be host specific [19]. The AMF-plant symbiosis is not formed stochastically, but depends on their functional traits [20,21]. The knowledge on the host specific benefits provided by AMF to plants obtained from greenhouses should be further tested in field studies
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