C-B.13: Plant species pool size is a better predictor of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity and biomass than local plant species richness
Authors
Martti Vasar
University of Tartu
Tanel Vahter
University of Tartu
Koit Herodes
University of Tartu
Ayesh Wipulasena
University of Tartu
DarkDivNet Consortium
Martin Zobel
University of Tartu
Meelis Pärtel
University of Tartu
Keywords
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, dark diversity, plant diversity
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Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are globally important plant symbionts, yet the relative contributions of environmental conditions and plant diversity to AM fungal diversity and biomass remain poorly resolved at broad spatial scales. We evaluated factors associated with AM fungal diversity and two AM fungal biomass proxies, neutral lipid fatty acid (NLFA) 16:1ω5 and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) 16:1ω5, across 99 globally distributed sites using Random Forest models integrating soil, climate, fungal guild, and plant diversity metrics. We tested whether plant diversity metrics derived from dark-diversity theory—species pool size (regional biodiversity potential) and community completeness (realization of that potential)—improved prediction beyond abiotic covariates and local plant richness. Models incorporating regional plant diversity metrics consistently outperformed abiotic-only models. The best-performing models explained 22% of the variance in the held-out data for AM fungal diversity, 17% for NLFA, and 24% for PLFA. Plant species pool size was retained in the best-performing model for all three responses, either alone or together with plant community completeness, whereas local plant richness was not retained in any of the best-performing models. AM fungal diversity was positively associated with plant species pool size, plant pathogenic fungi, and soil pH, whereas biomass (PLFA) was strongly associated with soil carbon, plant species pool size, and potassium. These findings highlight the importance of regional biodiversity context for understanding contemporary soil microbial communities and suggest that incorporating species-pool approaches may improve our understanding of broad-scale links between above- and below-ground biodiversity.
Co-authors: Darkdivnet Consortium, Koit Herodes, Ayesh Wipulasena, Tanel Vahter, Martin Zobel, Meelis Pärtel, Martti Vasar
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