Format: ORAL

Yelyzaveta Shpilkina1,Lena Neuenkamp2, Fernando T. Maestre3

1. Multidisciplinary Institute for Environment Studies “Ramon Margalef,” University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain. 2. Institute of Landscape Ecology, Münster University, Münster, Germany; Department of Ecology and Multidisciplinary Institute for Environment Studies “Ramon Margalef”, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain. 3. Department of Ecology and Multidisciplinary Institute for Environment Studies “Ramon Margalef,” University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain.

In exchange for the carbon assimilated by plants, mycorrhizal fungi increase plant nutrient supply, protect them against pathogens and drought, and influence soil formation and aggregation, among other benefits. These processes, in turn, affect the diversity of the vegetation and multiple ecosystem functions, including one of the most important, biomass production. The functional traits of the host plants dominating the vegetation can be used to estimate the responsiveness of plant communities to mycorrhizal fungi and their relevance to ecosystem multifunctionality, as plants vary in their responsiveness to mycorrhizal fungi and their carbon economics. Despite the potential relevance of plant functional diversity as mediator of mycorrhizal effects on dryland diversity and functioning, experimental tests of such effects are still missing. This study aims to evaluate, through an experimental approach, the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on plant biomass production. For doing so, we used simplified grassland communities two with functional groups, forbs and grasses, where varying dominance of one or another plant functional group is used as an indicator of plant functional diversity. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi increased plant biomass production, but no effect of functional diversity on biomass production was found. Furthermore, no interactive effects of functional diversity and mycorrhiza presence on biomass production were found. This study indicates that to fully understand the interactions between AMF and different plant species it is also essential to consider all the complexities of nutrient economy mechanisms. This work also underscores the importance of considering soil microorganisms and mycorrhizal-plant interactions in studies of ecosystem functioning, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of belowground processes.