Ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity increases phosphorus uptake efficiency of European beech

Abstract

Increases in summer droughts and nitrogen (N) deposition have raised concerns of widespread biodiversity loss and nutrient imbalances, but our understanding of the ecological role of ectomycorrhizal fungal (ECMF) diversity in mediating root functions remains a major knowledge gap. We used different global change scenarios to experimentally alter the composition of ECMF communities colonizing European beech saplings and examined the consequences for phosphorus (P) uptake (H PO feeding experiment) and use efficiencies of trees. Specifically, we simulated increases in temperature and N deposition and decreases in soil moisture and P availability in a factorial experiment. Here, we show that ECMF α diversity is a major factor contributing to root functioning under global change. P uptake efficiency of beech significantly increased with increasing ECMF species richness and diversity, as well as with decreasing P availability. As a consequence of decreases in ECMF diversity, P uptake efficiency decreased when soil moisture was limiting. By contrast, P use efficiencies were a direct (negative) function of P availability and not of ECMF diversity. We conclude that increasing summer droughts may reduce ECMF diversity and the complementarity of P uptake by ECMF species, which will add to negative growth effects expected from nutrient imbalances under global change.

Root exudation of mature beech forests across a nutrient availability gradient: the role of root morphology and fungal activity

“…However, the bulk of evidence of greatly enhanced root exudation of carboxylates under P-limited soil conditions has been collected in nonmycorrhizal Proteaceae and arbuscular mycorrhizal crop plants (e.g. L opez- Bucio et al, 2000;Lambers et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2016), while ectomycorrhizal trees may rely more on their associated mycelia for exploring the soil and accessing immobile P resources (Cairney, 2011;K€ ohler et al, 2018).…”

Black truffle winter production depends on Mediterranean summer precipitation

“…For the full, early and late period, the fraction of the map with p<10.00% is 39.71%, 24.24% and 23.83%, respectively. their hosts-similar to other ectomycorrhizal fungi (Köhler et al 2018), there are several indirect, temperature-induced, factors (Baragatti et al 2019), such as wildfires, pathogens and diseases (Thomas and Büntgen 2019), as well as phenological mismatch in trophic interactions that may disrupt current ecological systems (Renner and Zohner 2018), and cause economic damage. A longer fire season combined with more frequent large fires is expected as a result of increasing summer temperatures, drought and land-use changes (Khabarov et al 2016, Ruffault et al 2016.…”

Cross‐scale integration of mycorrhizal function

“…Here, Köhler et al . (; in this issue of New Phytologist , pp. 1200–1210) report that higher ECM fungal species richness supports higher P uptake of the host.…”

“…Causal effects of mycorrhizal fungi, either on the host (Jiang et al ., , pp. 1222–1235; Köhler et al ., , pp. 1200–1210) or on the soil (Storer et al ., ; in this issue of New Phytologist , pp.…”

“…1172–1184; Castaño et al ., , pp. 1211‐1221; Köhler et al ., , pp. 1200–1210) with obvious risk scenarios of accelerating global change, but also possibilities for mitigation by well‐informed land‐use management.…”