Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi influence decomposition of, but not plant nutrient capture from, glycine patches in soil

Mycorrhizas and nutrient cycling in ecosystems - a journey towards relevance?

Progress towards understanding the extent to which mycorrhizal fungi are involved in the mobilization of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from natural substrates is reviewed here. While mycorrhiza research has emphasized the role of the symbiosis in facilitation of capture of these nutrients in ionic form, attention has shifted since the mid-1980s to analysing the mycorrhizal fungal abilities to release N and P from the detrital materials of microbial faunal and plant origins, which are the primary sources of these elements in terrestrial ecosystems. Ericoid, and some ectomycorrhizal fungi have the potential to be directly involved in attack both on structural polymers, which may render nutrients inaccessible, and in mobilization of N and P from the organic polymers in which they are sequestered. The advantages to the plant of achieving intervention in the microbial mobilization-immobilization cycles are stressed. While the new approaches may initially lack the precision achieved in studies of readily characterized ionic forms of N and P, they do provide insights of greater ecological relevance. The results support the hypothesis that selection has favoured ericoid and ectomycorrhizal systems with well developed saprotrophic capabilities in those ecosystems characterized by retention of N and P as organic complexes in the soil. The need for further investigation of the abilities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to intervene in nutrient mobilization processes is stressed.

Plant nitrogen capture from organic matter as affected by spatial dispersion, interspecific competition and mycorrhizal colonization

• The capture of nitrogen (N) by plants from N-rich complex organic material differing in spatial (uniform dispersion or discrete patches) heterogeneity was measured, as well as the subsequent impact on N capture of the addition of a mycorrhizal inoculum ( Glomus hoi ). • The organic material was dual-labelled with ¹⁵ N and ¹³ C to follow plant uptake of N (as ¹⁵ N) and to determine the amounts of original ¹³ C and ¹⁵ N which remained in the soil at harvest. The organic material was added to microcosm units containing Lolium perenne or Plantago lanceolata in intra or interspecific competition. • Plant N capture from the dispersed organic material was more than twice that from the discrete patch (dispersed: 17%; discrete: 8%). There was no effect of species composition or the mycorrhizal inoculum on total plant N capture except when in interspecific plant competition. Here, N capture was dependent on the root length produced and was always higher when the mycorrhizal inoculum was present. • Mycorrhizal colonization increased N capture from the organic material when in interspecific plant competition but not in monoculture.