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Soil fungal networks moderate density‐dependent survival and growth of seedlings
- Source :
- New Phytologist. 230:2061-2071
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Pathogenic and mutualistic fungi have contrasting effects on seedling establishment, but it remains unclear whether density-dependent survival and growth are regulated by access to different types of mycorrhizal fungal networks supported by neighbouring adult trees. Here, we conducted an extensive field survey to test how mycorrhizal and pathogenic fungal colonization of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) seedlings in a subtropical forest respond to density of neighbouring adult trees. In addition, we undertook a hyphal exclusion experiment to explicitly test the role of soil fungal networks in driving density-dependent effects on seedling growth and survival. Conspecific adult density was a strong predictor for the relative abundance of putative pathogens, which was greater in roots of AM than of ECM seedlings, while mycorrhizal fungal abundance and colonization were not consistently affected by conspecific adult density. Both ECM and AM fungal networks counteracted conspecific density-dependent mortality, but ECM fungi were more effective at weakening the negative effects of high seedling density than AM fungi. Our findings reveal a critical role of common fungal networks in mitigating negative density-dependent effects of pathogenic fungi on seedling establishment, which provides mechanistic insights into how soil fungal diversity shapes plant community structure in subtropical forests.
- Subjects :
- Hypha
biology
Physiology
Plant community
Plant Science
Forests
biology.organism_classification
Plant Roots
Trees
Soil
Density dependence
Seedlings
Seedling
Abundance (ecology)
Mycorrhizae
Botany
Colonization
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Relative species abundance
Soil Microbiology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14698137 and 0028646X
- Volume :
- 230
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- New Phytologist
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....88e2c6c7913d847d6d82c2613652d9c0