Severance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal mycelial networks in restoration grasslands enhances seedling biomass

ABSTRACT: Summary Establishment and growth of grassland plant species is generally promoted by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) when grown in isolation. However, in grassland communities AMF form networks that may connect individual plants of different ages within and between species. Here, we use an ingrowth core approach to examine how mycorrhizal networks influences performance of seedlings in grasslands. We selected four grass and four forb species with known negative or neutral‐positive plant–soil feedback and grew them individually in steel mesh cores filled with living field soil. Cores were placed in six restored grasslands, three grasslands were of relatively young and three were of older successional age. Ingrowing mycorrhizal fungal hyphae were severed twice a week in half of all cores,

SUBMITTER: Dassen S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9290608 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature