Title : Impact of future climate changes on arbuscular mycorrhizal communities under organic vs conventional agricultural management systems
Abstract:
Arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) are the most common symbiotic association of plant roots with soil-borne fungi. AM fungi significantly improve plant growth, nutrient uptake and crop production. In addition, AM fungi can improve plant immunity to tolerate biotic and abiotic stressors. Various agricultural regimes such as the intensity of cultivation, crop rotations and application of fertilizers and pesticides have severe impacts on the AMF diversity and community composition in soil and in plant roots. Moreover, future climate changes (including altered precipitation and temperature patterns) have severe impacts on the mycorrhiza-root associations. However, the impact of interaction between the agricultural management systems and the global future climate changes on AM fungi is poorly understood. For that reason, in our study, we aimed to evaluate impact of various agricultural regimes and future climate changes, together with consideration of the combined effects on diversity and community composition of AM fungi. The study was conducted on the Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF), a natural field plots undergo realistic scenario of future climate based on several models of climate change in Central Germany for the years between 2070 and 2100. We characterized mycorrhizal communities colonizing roots of wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivated in organic vs. conventional farming agroecosystems in the plots undergo future and ambient climate conditions using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of 18S rDNA. We found that future climate has a significant impact on both AM fungal community composition and richness. Also, Future climate significantly affect the dynamics of mycorrhizal communities colonizing plant roots at different growth stages. We are recommending application of organic farming systems for better AM fungal root association in the future.
