Partitioning of soil phosphorus among arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal trees in tropical and subtropical forests.
Ecol Lett
; 21(5): 713-723, 2018 05.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29536604
ABSTRACT
Partitioning of soil phosphorus (P) pools has been proposed as a key mechanism maintaining plant diversity, but experimental support is lacking. Here, we provided different chemical forms of P to 15 tree species with contrasting root symbiotic relationships to investigate plant P acquisition in both tropical and subtropical forests. Both ectomycorrhizal (ECM) and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) trees responded positively to addition of inorganic P, but strikingly, ECM trees acquired more P from a complex organic form (phytic acid). Most ECM tree species and all AM tree species also showed some capacity to take up simple organic P (monophosphate). Mycorrhizal colonisation was negatively correlated with soil extractable P concentration, suggesting that mycorrhizal fungi may regulate organic P acquisition among tree species. Our results support the hypothesis that ECM and AM plants partition soil P sources, which may play an ecologically important role in promoting species coexistence in tropical and subtropical forests.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Soil
/
Trees
/
Mycorrhizae
Language:
En
Journal:
Ecol Lett
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United kingdom