AM fungal richness and biomass covary in arable farmlands

This study investigates the relationship between AM fungal diversity, biomass, and management intensity in agricultural soils. We found that intensive management leads to a decline in AM fungal species richness and biomass simultaneously. This decline is accompanied by a shift towards more generalist and ruderal communities. Furthermore, AM fungal communities in intensively managed soils became more generalistic due to a decline in specialist taxa rather than an increase in the abundance of generalists. DNA was extracted from a 5 g sample of dried soil using a PowerMax(R) Soil DNA Isolation Kit. AM fungal sequences were amplified from soil DNA extracts using AM fungal specific primers for the small-subunit (SSU) ribosomal RNA gene: WANDA and AML2. Sequencing was performed on the Illumina MiSeq platform, using a 2x300 bp paired-end sequencing approach. Importantly, DNA concentrations were not equalised between samples prior to sequencing. In conclusion, preserving AM fungal diversity can guide preserving their biomass a precursor of niche occupancy, suggesting that intensive management practices negatively impact these crucial soil organisms.