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Soil aggregation and carbon sequestration are tightly correlated with the abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: results from long-term field experiments |
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| Authors: | Gail W T Wilson Charles W Rice Matthias C Rillig Adam Springer David C Hartnett |
| Institution: | Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA; Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA; Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Department of Natural Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA |
| Abstract: | We examined the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in ecosystems using soil aggregate stability and C and N storage as representative ecosystem processes. We utilized a wide gradient in AMF abundance, obtained through long-term (17 and 6 years) large-scale field manipulations. Burning and N-fertilization increased soil AMF hyphae, glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) pools and water-stable macroaggregates while fungicide applications reduced AMF hyphae, GRSP and water-stable macroaggregates. We found that AMF abundance was a surprisingly dominant factor explaining the vast majority of variability in soil aggregation. This experimental field study, involving long-term diverse management practices of native multispecies prairie communities, invariably showed a close positive correlation between AMF hyphal abundance and soil aggregation, and C and N sequestration. This highly significant linear correlation suggests there are serious consequences to the loss of AMF from ecosystems. |
| Keywords: | Annual burning extramatrical hyphae fungicide glomalin grasslands N enrichment tallgrass prairie |