Data from: Severance of arbuscular mycorrhizal networks in restoration grasslands enhances seedling biomass

1. 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 in-growth core approach to examine how mycorrhizal networks
influences performance of seedlings in grasslands. 2. We selected 4 grass
and 4 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. 3.
Ingrowing mycorrhizal fungal hyphae were severed twice a week in half of
all cores, which resulted into reduced AMF colonisation and increased
seedling biomass, irrespective of the fields’ succession stage, and the
plants’ grass/forb group, or plant-soil feedback type. In the control
cores, root colonization by AMF was negatively correlated to seedling
biomass, whereas there was no such relationships in the cores that had
been lifted. 4. We conclude that connections to arbuscular mycorrhizal
networks of surrounding plants had a negative impact on biomass of
establishing forb and grass seedlings.