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. 2023 Mar 13:14:1084218.
doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1084218. eCollection 2023.

Competitive interactions in two different plant species: Do grassland mycorrhizal communities and nitrogen addition play the same game?

Ali Bahadur  1   2   3 , Shengjing Jiang  4 , Wei Zhang  3 , Wasim Sajjad  3 , Muhammad Usman  5 , Fahad Nasir  6 , Muhammad Amir Zia  7 , Qi Zhang  2 , Jianbin Pan  2 , Yongjun Liu  2 , Tuo Chen  3 , Huyuan Feng  2
Affiliations

Competitive interactions in two different plant species: Do grassland mycorrhizal communities and nitrogen addition play the same game?

Ali Bahadur et al. Front Plant Sci. .

Abstract

In the Tibetan Plateau grassland ecosystems, nitrogen (N) availability is rising dramatically; however, the influence of higher N on the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) might impact on plant competitive interactions. Therefore, understanding the part played by AMF in the competition between Vicia faba and Brassica napus and its dependence on the N-addition status is necessary. To address this, a glasshouse experiment was conducted to examine whether the grassland AMF community's inocula (AMF and NAMF) and N-addition levels (N-0 and N-15) alter plant competition between V. faba and B. napus. Two harvests took day 45 (1st harvest) and day 90 (2nd harvest), respectively. The findings showed that compared to B. napus, AMF inoculation significantly improved the competitive potential of the V. faba. In the occurrence of AMF, V. faba was the strongest competitor being facilitated by B. napus in both harvests. While under N-15, AMF significantly enhanced tissue N:P ratio in B. napus mixed-culture at 1st harvest, the opposite trend was observed in 2nd harvest. The mycorrhizal growth dependency slightly negatively affected mixed-culture compared to monoculture under both N-addition treatments. The aggressivity index of AMF plants was higher than NAMF plants with both N-addition and harvests. Our observation highlights that mycorrhizal associations might facilitate host plant species in mixed-culture with non-host plant species. Additionally, interacting with N-addition, AMF could impact the competitive ability of the host plant not only directly but also indirectly, thereby changing the growth and nutrient uptake of competing plant species.

Keywords: grassland AMF inoculum; host plant; nitrogen deposition; non-host plant; plant competition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The RE-GF declared a shared affiliation with the author FN to the handling editor at the time of review. RE’s department is “Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research”, AUT’s department is “Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology” Chinese Academy of Sciences CAS, Beijing, Chinas

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
In monoculture and mixed-culture V. faba and (B) napus under AMF inoculation and N-addition conditions of N-0 and N-15 were imposed for both harvests (Day 45 1st harvest and Day 90 2nd harvest).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Root and shoot biomass production per plant (mean ± SE) in monoculture and mixed-culture V. faba and B. napus under AMF inoculation and N-addition conditions of N-0 and N-15. (A, B) show 1st harvest, (C, D) show 2nd harvest. Different letters denote significantly different means (Duncan test: P < 0.05).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Tissue N:P ratio per plant (mean ± SE) in monoculture and mixed-culture V. faba and B. napus under AMF inoculation and N-addition conditions of N-0 and N-15. (A) shows 1st harvest, (B) shows 2nd harvest. Different letters denote significantly different means (Duncan test: P < 0.05). For statistical details, see Table 2 and Supplementary Table 1 .
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mycorrhizal growth dependency (MGD) of V. faba and B. napus under N-addition conditions of N-0 and N-15. (A) shows 1st harvest, (B) shows 2nd harvest. * denotes significant difference.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Effects of AMF inoculation on V. faba and B. napus nder N-addition conditions of N-0 and N-15, evaluated using the aggressivity index (AGR) and relative interaction intensity index (RII). (A, C) show 1st harvest, (B, D) show 2nd harvest. For statistical details, see Table 3 . * denotes significant difference.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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