title: Soil aggregation and carbon sequestration are tightly correlated with the abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: results from long-term field experiments.
abstract: We examined the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in ecosystems using soil aggregate stability and C and N storage as representative ecosystem processes. We utilized a wide gradient in AMF abundance, obtained through long-term (17 and 6 years) large-scale field manipulations. Burning and N-fertilization increased soil AMF hyphae, glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) pools and water-stable macroaggregates while fungicide applications reduced AMF hyphae, GRSP and water-stable macroaggregates. We found that AMF abundance was a surprisingly dominant factor explaining the vast majority of variability in soil aggregation. This experimental field study, involving long-term diverse management practices of native multispecies prairie communities, invariably showed a close positive correlation between AMF hyphal abundance and soil aggregation, and C and N sequestration. This highly significant linear correlation suggests there are serious consequences to the loss of AMF from ecosystems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA. gail.wilson@okstate.edu
authors.forename: Gail W T
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Charles W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Rice
authors.forename: Matthias C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Rillig
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Springer
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Hartnett