Tree mycorrhizal association types control biodiversity-productivity relationship in a subtropical forest
Authors/Creators
- 1. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China
- 2. Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA 3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquanlu, Beijing 100049, China
- 3. School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 310 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
- 4. German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstr. 4, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
- 5. Department of Geography, Remote Sensing Laboratories, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland
Description
Mycorrhizae are symbiotic associations between terrestrial plants and fungi in which fungi obtain nutrients in exchange for plant photosynthates. However, it remains unclear how different types of mycorrhizae affect their host interactions and productivity. Utilizing a long-term experiment with a diversity gradient of arbuscular- (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EcM) tree species, we show that the type of mycorrhizae critically controls the effect of diversity on productivity. With increasing diversity, net primary production (NPP) of AM trees increased but EcM trees decreased, largely because AM trees are more effective in acquiring nitrogen and phosphorous. Specifically, with diversity increase, AM trees enhance both nutrient resorption and litter decomposition, while there was a tradeoff between litter decomposability and nutrient resorption in EcM trees. These results provide a mechanistic understanding of why AM trees by using a different nutrient acquisition strategy from EcM trees can dominate in subtropical forests and at the same time their diversity enhances productivity.
Files
DiversityCorrelation.csv
Files
(627.0 kB)
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