AMF diversity promotes plant community phosphorus acquisition and reduces carbon costs per unit of phosphorus

Sören Eliot Weber; Jordi Bascompte; Ansgar Kahmen; Pascal A. Niklaus

doi:10.1111/nph.70161

AMF diversity promotes plant community phosphorus acquisition and reduces carbon costs per unit of phosphorus

Sören Eliot Weber
, Jordi Bascompte
, Ansgar Kahmen
, Pascal A. Niklaus

Plant-Soil Interactions

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Plants may benefit from more diverse communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as functional complementarity of AMF may allow for increased resource acquisition, and because a high AMF diversity increases the probability of plants matching with an optimal AMF symbiont. We repeatedly radiolabeled plants and AMF in the glasshouse over c. 9 months to test how AMF species richness (SR) influences the exchange of plant C (¹⁴C) for AMF P (³²P & ³³P) and resulting shoot nutrients and mass from a biodiversity–ecosystem functioning perspective. Plant P acquisition via AMF increased with sown AMF SR, as did shoot biomass, shoot P, and shoot N. The rate of plant C transferred to AMF for this P (C:P) decreased with sown AMF SR. Plants in plant communities benefit from inoculation with a variety of AMF species via more favorable resource exchange. Surprisingly, this effect did not differ among functionally distinct communities comprised entirely of either legumes, nonlegume forbs, or C3 grasses.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	886-896
Number of pages	11
Journal	New Phytologist
Volume	248
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70161
State	Published - Oct 2025

Funding

This project was supported by a Syngenta Fellowship Program of the Zurich‐Basel Plant Science Center awarded to PAN, JB, and AK from the Zürich‐Basel Plant Science Center, and a Candoc Forschungskredit (FK‐21‐106) awarded to SEW and PAN from the University of Zürich, and the Swiss National Science Foundation grant (no. 310030_197201) awarded to JB. We thank Marcel van der Heijden for providing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculum, and for guidance and helpful discussions; Sandra Schneebeli for establishing initial AMF cultures; Matthias Furler, Lea Sophie Buol, Richard Young, and Bruce Boatman for their help in the laboratory and glasshouse; Matthew E. Craig and Joseph D. Edwards for comments; Marcel Freund for assistance in building microcosms; Agroscope Reckenholz and the International Bank of the Glomeromycota for supplying strains of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for use in this study; and three anonymous reviewers for improving the clarity of this text. This manuscript has been authored by UT‐Battelle, LLC, under contract DE‐AC05‐00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid‐up, irrevocable, world‐wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( https://www.energy.gov/doe‐public‐access‐plan ).

Keywords

arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
biodiversity–ecosystem functioning
biological markets
preferential resource allocation
radiolabeling
symbiosis

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10.1111/nph.70161

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@article{10181e3e5a664700a61a0e2a564b9d84,

title = "AMF diversity promotes plant community phosphorus acquisition and reduces carbon costs per unit of phosphorus",

abstract = "Plants may benefit from more diverse communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as functional complementarity of AMF may allow for increased resource acquisition, and because a high AMF diversity increases the probability of plants matching with an optimal AMF symbiont. We repeatedly radiolabeled plants and AMF in the glasshouse over c. 9 months to test how AMF species richness (SR) influences the exchange of plant C (14C) for AMF P (32P \& 33P) and resulting shoot nutrients and mass from a biodiversity–ecosystem functioning perspective. Plant P acquisition via AMF increased with sown AMF SR, as did shoot biomass, shoot P, and shoot N. The rate of plant C transferred to AMF for this P (C:P) decreased with sown AMF SR. Plants in plant communities benefit from inoculation with a variety of AMF species via more favorable resource exchange. Surprisingly, this effect did not differ among functionally distinct communities comprised entirely of either legumes, nonlegume forbs, or C3 grasses.",

keywords = "arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, biodiversity–ecosystem functioning, biological markets, preferential resource allocation, radiolabeling, symbiosis",

author = "Weber, \{S{\"o}ren Eliot\} and Jordi Bascompte and Ansgar Kahmen and Niklaus, \{Pascal A.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 UT-Battelle LLC. New Phytologist {\textcopyright} 2025 New Phytologist Foundation.",

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AU - Weber, Sören Eliot

AU - Bascompte, Jordi

AU - Kahmen, Ansgar

AU - Niklaus, Pascal A.

PY - 2025/10

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N2 - Plants may benefit from more diverse communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as functional complementarity of AMF may allow for increased resource acquisition, and because a high AMF diversity increases the probability of plants matching with an optimal AMF symbiont. We repeatedly radiolabeled plants and AMF in the glasshouse over c. 9 months to test how AMF species richness (SR) influences the exchange of plant C (14C) for AMF P (32P & 33P) and resulting shoot nutrients and mass from a biodiversity–ecosystem functioning perspective. Plant P acquisition via AMF increased with sown AMF SR, as did shoot biomass, shoot P, and shoot N. The rate of plant C transferred to AMF for this P (C:P) decreased with sown AMF SR. Plants in plant communities benefit from inoculation with a variety of AMF species via more favorable resource exchange. Surprisingly, this effect did not differ among functionally distinct communities comprised entirely of either legumes, nonlegume forbs, or C3 grasses.

AB - Plants may benefit from more diverse communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as functional complementarity of AMF may allow for increased resource acquisition, and because a high AMF diversity increases the probability of plants matching with an optimal AMF symbiont. We repeatedly radiolabeled plants and AMF in the glasshouse over c. 9 months to test how AMF species richness (SR) influences the exchange of plant C (14C) for AMF P (32P & 33P) and resulting shoot nutrients and mass from a biodiversity–ecosystem functioning perspective. Plant P acquisition via AMF increased with sown AMF SR, as did shoot biomass, shoot P, and shoot N. The rate of plant C transferred to AMF for this P (C:P) decreased with sown AMF SR. Plants in plant communities benefit from inoculation with a variety of AMF species via more favorable resource exchange. Surprisingly, this effect did not differ among functionally distinct communities comprised entirely of either legumes, nonlegume forbs, or C3 grasses.

KW - arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

KW - biodiversity–ecosystem functioning

KW - biological markets

KW - preferential resource allocation

KW - radiolabeling

KW - symbiosis

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JF - New Phytologist

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ER -

AMF diversity promotes plant community phosphorus acquisition and reduces carbon costs per unit of phosphorus

Abstract

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Keywords

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