AMF diversity promotes plant community phosphorus acquisition and reduces carbon costs per unit of phosphorus

Abstract

• Plants may benefit from more diverse communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as functional complementarity of AMF may allow for increased resource acquisition, and because a high AMF diversity increases the probability of plants matching with an optimal AMF symbiont.
• We repeatedly radiolabeled plants and AMF in the glasshouse over c. 9 months to test how AMF species richness (SR) influences the exchange of plant C (¹⁴C) for AMF P (³²P & ³³P) and resulting shoot nutrients and mass from a biodiversity–ecosystem functioning perspective.
• Plant P acquisition via AMF increased with sown AMF SR, as did shoot biomass, shoot P, and shoot N. The rate of plant C transferred to AMF for this P (C:P) decreased with sown AMF SR.
• Plants in plant communities benefit from inoculation with a variety of AMF species via more favorable resource exchange. Surprisingly, this effect did not differ among functionally distinct communities comprised entirely of either legumes, nonlegume forbs, or C3 grasses.