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Katarina Hedlund

Katarina Hedlund

Professor

Katarina Hedlund

Agricultural management practices influence AMF diversity and community composition with cascading effects on plant productivity

Author

  • Lokeshwaran Manoharan
  • Nicholas P. Rosenstock
  • Alwyn Williams
  • Katarina Hedlund

Summary, in English

Understanding the effects of different agricultural practices on the mycorrhizal symbiosis is important for agricultural production and the sustainable use of soil. We investigated the composition and diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in soils from fields under different agricultural practices (conventional and organic cereal fields, leys and permanent pastures) in southern Sweden. The diversity of AMF was found to be greatest in permanent pastures, corroborating evidence that agricultural practices such as tillage impair AMF diversity. Neither geographical location nor soil type nor any of the major soil characteristics we measured impacted AMF diversity or community composition. AMF community composition was significantly affected by the different agricultural practices, particularly conventional management, which reduced AMF diversity. Of the cereal fields sampled, those under organic management held the greatest AMF diversity, and in a glasshouse experiment this greater diversity was positively related to barley phosphorus uptake and grain biomass production. Our results demonstrate the impact of different agricultural practices on AMF communities. In particular, we demonstrate the ability of organic farming to sustain greater AMF diversity relative to conventional farming, and the potential importance of this increased diversity for sustainable cereal production.

Department/s

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

Publishing year

2017-07-01

Language

English

Pages

53-59

Publication/Series

Applied Soil Ecology

Volume

115

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
  • Ecology

Keywords

  • 454 pyrosequencing
  • Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
  • Community composition
  • Diversity
  • Plant performance

Status

Published

Research group

  • Soil Ecology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0929-1393