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Katarina Hedlund

Katarina Hedlund

Professor

Katarina Hedlund

Long-term agricultural fertilization alters arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community composition and barley (Hordeum vulgare) mycorrhizal carbon and phosphorus exchange

Author

  • Alwyn Williams
  • Lokeshwaran Manoharan
  • Nicholas P. Rosenstock
  • Pål Axel Olsson
  • Katarina Hedlund

Summary, in English

Agricultural fertilization significantly affects arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) community composition. However, the functional implications of community shifts are unknown, limiting understanding of the role of AMF in agriculture. We assessed AMF community composition at four sites managed under the same nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizer regimes for 55 yr. We also established a glasshouse experiment with the same soils to investigate AMF–barley (Hordeum vulgare) nutrient exchange, using carbon (13C) and 33P isotopic labelling. N fertilization affected AMF community composition, reducing diversity; P had no effect. In the glasshouse, AMF contribution to plant P declined with P fertilization, but was unaffected by N. Barley C allocation to AMF also declined with P fertilization. As N fertilization increased, C allocation to AMF per unit of P exchanged increased. This occurred with and without P fertilization, and was concomitant with reduced barley biomass. AMF community composition showed no relationship with glasshouse experiment results. The results indicate that plants can reduce C allocation to AMF in response to P fertilization. Under N fertilization, plants allocate an increasing amount of C to AMF and receive relatively less P. This suggests an alteration in the terms of P–C exchange under N fertilization regardless of soil P status.

Department/s

  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
  • Department of Biology
  • Soil Ecology
  • Biodiversity
  • Plant Biology

Publishing year

2017-01-01

Language

English

Pages

874-885

Publication/Series

New Phytologist

Volume

213

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use

Keywords

  • agriculture
  • arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)
  • carbon (C)
  • diversity
  • fertilizer
  • mutualism
  • nitrogen (N)
  • phosphorus (P)

Status

Published

Research group

  • Soil Ecology
  • Plant Biology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0028-646X