Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (Glomeromycota) in the Forests and Biodiversity Experiment, Minnesota, USA. Glomeromycota

While the relationship between plant and microbial diversity has been well studied in grasslands, less is known about similar relationships in forests, especially for obligately symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. To assess the effect of varying tree diversity on microbial alpha- and beta-diversity, we sampled soil from plots in a high-density tree diversity experiment in Minnesota, USA three years after establishment. Three of 12 tree species are AM hosts; the other 9 primarily associate with ectomycorrhizal fungi. We used high throughput sequencing to identify the species-level richness and composition of the AM fungal community.