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. 2016 Jul 12:4:e2226.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.2226. eCollection 2016.

Rapid response of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities to short-term fertilization in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Xingjia Xiang  1 , Sean M Gibbons  2 , Jin-Sheng He  3 , Chao Wang  4 , Dan He  5 , Qian Li  6 , Yingying Ni  5 , Haiyan Chu  5
Affiliations

Rapid response of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities to short-term fertilization in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Xingjia Xiang et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Background: The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is home to the vast grassland in China. The QTP grassland ecosystem has been seriously degraded by human land use practices and climate change. Fertilization is used in this region to increase vegetation yields for grazers. The impact of long-term fertilization on plant and microbial communities has been studied extensively. However, the influence of short-term fertilization on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities in the QTP is largely unknown, despite their important functional role in grassland ecosystems.

Methods: We investigated AMF community responses to three years of N and/or P addition at an experimental field site on the QTP, using the Illumina MiSeq platform (PE 300).

Results: Fertilization resulted in a dramatic shift in AMF community composition and NP addition significantly increased AMF species richness and phylogenetic diversity. Aboveground biomass, available phosphorus, and NO3 (-) were significantly correlated with changes in AMF community structure. Changes in these factors were driven by fertilization treatments. Thus, fertilization had a large impact on AMF communities, mediated by changes in aboveground productivity and soil chemistry.

Discussion: Prior work has shown how plants often lower their reliance on AMF symbioses following fertilization, leading to decrease AMF abundance and diversity. However, our study reports a rise in AMF diversity with fertilization treatment. Because AMF can provide stress tolerance to their hosts, we suggest that extreme weather on the QTP may help drive a positive relationship between fertilizer amendment and AMF diversity.

Keywords: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; Community; Diversity; Fertilization; Plateau.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Venn diagram showing the co-occurence of the OTUs among samples from different treatments at the QTP station.
Numbers in parentheses indicate total OTUs in each treatment group, and numbers inside the Venn diagram indicate unique and shared OTUs. OTU, operational taxonomic unit.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Soil AMF alpha-diversity (OTU richness and phylogenetic diversity) calculated at a rarefaction depth of 1,000 randomly selected sequences per sample in soils across different treatments.
Different letters represent significant differences from Tukey’s HSD comparisons (P < 0.05). Error bars denote standard deviation. OTU, operational taxonomic unit.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Relative abundances of dominant AMF families across control and fertilization (N, P and NP) treatments at the QTP station.
Error bars denote standard deviation calculated from five samples; different letters represent significant differences from Tukey’s HSD comparisons (P < 0.05).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Significant responses of AMF Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) after N, P and NP fertilization relative to control plots.
Significance was determined using a 95% confidence interval (CI), according to RR method.
Figure 5
Figure 5
NMDS plot of AMF community composition across control and fertilization (N, P and NP) treatments at the QTP station.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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