PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 30: Soil Ecology.
Wednesday, August 4 Presentations from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall A 1.
Host species, temperature, and clipping interact to influence the species composition of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities.
Redman, Andrea*,1, Johnson, Nancy 1, Rowland, Diane2, 1 Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ2 USDA-ARS, Dawson, GA
ABSTRACT- Environmental factors interact to influence arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities. Andropogon gerardii, a C4 grass, and Elymus repens, a C3 grass, were grown in grassland soils kept in warm (31°C) or cool (17°C) greenhouses and were repeatedly clipped to within 2.5 cm of the soil surface. After one growing season, the warm environment supported a significantly different AM fungal community than the cool environment and the temperature effect depended on host species and clipping (p <.0001 and p <.001, respectively). Likewise, the temperature effect on percent root length colonized by AM fungi depended on host species. Percent root length colonized in a warm environment was 111% and 45% greater in warm environments with E. repens and A. gerardii, respectively (p = 0.01). The ratio of arbuscules to vesicles, a measure of mutualistic investment, was also greatest in warm soil (p = 0.01). Temperature interacts with host species and clipping to influence the AM fungal community composition and mutualistic investment of the fungi. These results suggest researchers should consider temperature, host species, and herbivory when designing studies of AM fungi because interactions among these factors influence AM fungal communities and plant-fungal-soil relationships.
Key words: community composition, temperature, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, host species