Biogeographical patterns of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi diversity in China’s grasslands

doi:10.1007/s11442-021-1880-6

Abstract

Abstract:

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are universally mutualistic symbionts that colonize the fine roots of most vascular plants. However, the biogeographical patterns and driving factors of AMF diversity of plant roots in grasslands are not well investigated. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing techniques and bioinformatics to evaluate the AMF richness of 333 individual plant roots in 21 natural grassland ecosystems in northern China, including the Loess Plateau (LP), the Mongolian Plateau (MP), and the Tibetan Plateau (TP). The AMF richness showed a significant parabolic trend with increasing longitude. In regional situations, the AMF richness in the grasslands of the MP (60.4 ± 1.47) was significantly higher than those of the LP (46.4 ± 1.43) and TP (44.3 ± 1.64). Plant traits (including plant families, genera, and functional groups) explained the most variation in the AMF richness across China’s grasslands, followed by energy and water; soil properties had the least effects. The results showed the biogeographical patterns of the AMF richness and the underlying dominant factors, providing synthetic data compilation and analyses in the AMF diversity in China’s grasslands.

Key words: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, biogeography, grassland ecosystems, northern China

TENG Jialing, TIAN Jing, YU Guirui. Biogeographical patterns of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi diversity in China’s grasslands[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2021, 31(7): 965-976.

Figures/Tables 6

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		Variables	Abbreviation	Unit
Climate	Energy	Mean annual temperature	MAT	℃
		Mean temperature of coldest month	MTCM	℃
		Mean temperature of warmest month	MTWM	℃
		Annual total radiation	Rd	MJ m^-2yr^-1
		Maximum monthly radiation	Rd_max	MJ m^-2day^-1
		Minimum monthly radiation	Rd_min	MJ m^-2day^-1
		Minimum photosynthetically active radiation	PAR_min	mol m^-2day^-1
		Maximum photosynthetically active radiation	PAR_max	mol m^-2day^-1
		Potential evapotranspiration	ET₀	mm yr^-1
	Water	Mean annual precipitation	MAP	mm
		Precipitation of the driest month	PDM	mm
		Precipitation of the wettest month	PWM	mm
	Other	Maximum monthly wind speed	Wind_max	m s^-1
		Dryness index
Soil		Organic carbon	SOC	%
		Carbon-Nitrogen ratio	CN	/
		Total phosphorus	STP	mg kg^-1
		Available phosphorus	SAP	mg kg^-1
		NO₃^-	/	mg kg^-1
		NH₄⁺	/	mg kg^-1
		pH	/	/
		Oxidation reduction potential	ORP	mv

	Variables	ALL	LP	MP	TP
Energy	MAT	0.052	0.074	0.245*	-0.118
	MTCM	-0.190**	0.036	0.265*	-0.188*
	MTWM	0.216**	0.079	0.191	0.048
	Rd	-0.155**	-0.063	-0.181	0.299**
	Rd_max	0.022	-0.052	-0.123	0.383**
	Rd_min	-0.298**	-0.093	0.13	0.01
	PAR_max	-0.069	-0.069	-0.207	0.341**
	PAR_min	-0.297**	-0.099	-0.015	-0.052
	ET₀	0.196**	0.241*	0.245*	0.189*
Water	MAP	-0.213**	-0.094	0.16	-0.352**
	PDM	-0.203**	0	-0.201	0.003
	PWM	-0.076	-0.039	0.2	-0.360**
Other	Wind_max	0.255**	0.200*	-0.011	0.244**
Other	DI	-0.257**	-0.183	-0.242*	-0.211*
Soil	SOC	-0.160**	-0.027	0.128	-0.225**
	CN	-0.056	-0.016	0.012	0.244**
	STP	-0.239**	-0.121	-0.003	-0.076
	SAP	0.052	0.101	-0.344**	-0.157
	NH₄⁺	-0.203**	-0.173	-0.1	-0.172*
	NO₃^-	-0.033	-0.145	-0.147	-0.156
	pH	0.116*	-0.007	0.253*	0.266**
	ORP	-0.211**	-0.099	-0.015	-0.052