Shifts in rhizosphere fungal community during secondary succession following abandonment from agriculture.

ABSTRACT: Activities of rhizosphere microbes are key to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. It is commonly believed that bacteria are the major consumers of root exudates and that the role of fungi in the rhizosphere is mostly limited to plant-associated taxa, such as mycorrhizal fungi, pathogens and endophytes, whereas less is known about the role of saprotrophs. In order to test the hypothesis that the role of saprotrophic fungi in rhizosphere processes increases with increased time after abandonment from agriculture, we determined the composition of fungi that are active in the rhizosphere along a chronosequence of ex-arable fields in the Netherlands. Intact soil cores were collected from nine fields that represent three stages of land abandonment and pulse labeled with ¹³CO

SUBMITTER: Hannula SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5607372 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature