Mycorrhiza increases plant diversity and soil carbon storage in grasslands
Experimental studies have shown that symbiotic relationships between arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and host plants can regulate soil organic carbon (SOC) storage. Although the impacts of mycorrhiza are highly context-dependent, it remains unclear how these effects vary across broad spatial scales. Based on data from 2296 field sites across grassland ecosystems of China, here we show that mycorrhizal fungi symbiosis enhances SOC storage in the topsoil and subsoil through increasing plant diversity and elevating biomass allocation to belowground. SOC storage is significantly higher in both the topsoil and subsoil in systems dominated by obligate mycorrhizal (OM) and facultative mycorrhizal (FM) plants than those dominated by nonmycorrhizal (NM) plants. Also, the relative abundance of OM plants increases at the expense of FM plants as temperature and precipitation increase. These findings provide valuable insights into the potential mechanisms by which mycorrhizal fungi may influence grassland plant diversity and SOC storage in the context of global change.
Authors
- Entao Zhang
- Guirui Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1859-8966)
- Weicheng Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1113-6363)
- Shuijin Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3225-5126)
- Daowei Zhou
- Lisong Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7043-1146)
- Jin He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5081-3569)
- Jianhui Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4880-1208)
- Thomas Ward Crowther (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5674-8913)
- Yongfei Bai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6656-4501)
- Zhouping Shangguan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5815-6310)
- Jiandong Sheng
- Ming Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1046-2140)
- Yang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4843-0080)
- Xinrong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7954-243X)
- Shiping Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1934-2372)
- Yan Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9796-7386)
- Yanfen Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5666-9289)
Institutions
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Hangzhou Normal University (CN)
- Xinjiang Agricultural University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology (CN)
- Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (CN)
- Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (CN)
- Chengdu Institute of Biology (CN)
- Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
- Lanzhou University (CN)
- Northwest A&F University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2025-02-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2412556122
- Citations
- 12
- Primary Topic
- Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 21.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China