Manipulating plant microbiomes in the field: native mycorrhizae advance plant succession and improve native plant restoration

The plant microbiome is critical to plant health and is degraded with anthropogenic disturbance. However, the value of re-establishing the native microbiome is rarely considered in ecological restoration. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are particularly important microbiome components, as they associate with most plants, and later successional grassland plants are strongly responsive to native AM fungi. With five separate sites across the United States, we inoculated mid- and late successional plant seedlings with one of three types of native microbiome amendments: 1) whole rhizosphere soil collected from local old-growth, undisturbed grassland communities in Illinois, Kansas, or Oklahoma, 2) laboratory cultured AM fungi from these same old-growth grassland sites or 3) no microbiome amendment. We also seeded each restoration with a diverse native seed mixture. Plant establishment and growth was followed for three growing seasons. The reintroduction of soil microbiome from native ecosy...

植物微生物组（plant microbiome）对植物健康至关重要，且会因人为干扰发生退化。然而，生态修复实践中极少考量重建原生微生物组的价值。丛枝菌根（Arbuscular mycorrhizal, AM）真菌是微生物组的核心组分，可与绝大多数植物形成共生关联；后续演替阶段的草原植物对原生AM真菌的响应尤为显著。本研究在美国境内设置5处独立样地，将3类原生微生物组改良剂分别接种至中、晚演替阶段的植物幼苗：1）采自伊利诺伊州、堪萨斯州或俄克拉荷马州本地原生未受干扰的老龄草原群落的完整根际土壤；2）从上述同处老龄草原样地分离并实验室培养的AM真菌；3）不施加微生物组改良剂。同时，本研究为每个修复样地播撒了多样的原生种子混合物，并连续3个生长季跟踪记录植物的定植与生长情况。重新引入原生生态系统的土壤微生物组……