Crop diversity enriches AMF communities in an intensive agricultural landscape

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are keystone symbionts of agricultural soils but agricultural intensification has negatively impacted AMF communities. Increasing crop diversity could ameliorate some of these impacts by positively affecting arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. However, the underlying relationship between plant diversity and AMF community composition has not been fully resolved. Here we examined how increasing crop diversity affected AMF across farms in an intensive agricultural landscape, defined by high nutrient input, low crop diversity, and high tillage frequency. We assessed AMF communities across 31 field sites that were either monocultures or polycultures (growing >20 different crop types) in three ways: (1) richness and diversity, (2) composition, and (3) root colonization.