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 contr...

1. 当单独种植时，丛枝菌根真菌（arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, AMF）通常可促进草地植物物种的定植与生长。然而，在草地群落中，AMF会形成菌根网络，能够连接群落内部及跨物种的不同年龄个体。本研究采用埋入式生长芯法（in-growth core approach），探究菌根网络对草地幼苗生长性能的影响。
2. 我们选取了4种禾本科植物与4种非禾本草本植物，这些物种均已被证实存在负向或中性-正向的植物-土壤反馈效应。将它们分别种植于填充有原位活土的钢网生长芯中，并将所有生长芯安置于6个恢复草地样地内，其中3个为较年轻的演替样地，其余3个为较老的演替样地。
3. 在半数生长芯中，每周两次切断侵入的菌根真菌菌丝，该操作可降低AMF定植率，且无论样地的演替阶段、植物所属的禾本科/非禾本草本组别，或是植物-土壤反馈类型如何，均会提升幼苗生物量。在对照组……