Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Ecology. 2010 Oct;91(10):3037-46. doi: 10.1890/09-1451.1.
The range of ecological roles exhibited by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi depends on functional differences among naturally occurring local assemblages of AM species. While functional differences have been demonstrated among AM fungal species and among geographic isolates of the same species, almost nothing is known about functional differences among whole communities of naturally occurring AM fungi. In the greenhouse, we reciprocally transplanted whole AM fungal communities between plant-soil systems representing a serpentine grassland and a tallgrass prairie, using as hosts two grasses common to both systems. For Sorghastrum nutans, native fungi consistently enhanced plant growth more than fungi switched from the alternate system. For Schizachyrium scoparium, foreign and native fungi promoted plant growth similarly in both the serpentine and prairie systems. Thus, the use of foreign inoculum in restoration could change the relative performance, and potentially the competitive abilities, of co-occurring plant species. Moving AM fungal inocula into foreign environments also caused changes in the taxonomic composition of the resultant spore communities, demonstrating their response to environmental influences. These results provide strong evidence for functional differences among naturally occurring AM communities and suggest that a particular AM fungal community may be better matched ecologically to its local habitat than communities taken from other locations.
丛枝菌根（AM）真菌表现出的生态角色范围取决于自然存在的 AM 物种的地方组合之间的功能差异。虽然已经证明 AM 真菌物种之间以及同一物种的地理分离株之间存在功能差异，但对于自然存在的 AM 真菌整个群落之间的功能差异几乎一无所知。在温室中，我们使用两种常见于这两个系统的草作为宿主，在代表蛇纹石草地和高草草原的植物-土壤系统之间相互移植整个 AM 真菌群落。对于 Sorghastrum nutans，本地真菌始终比从交替系统转换的真菌更能促进植物生长。对于 Schizachyrium scoparium，外来和本地真菌在蛇纹石和草原系统中都同样促进了植物的生长。因此，在恢复中使用外来接种体可能会改变共存植物物种的相对表现，并有潜力改变它们的竞争能力。将 AM 真菌接种体转移到外国环境中也会导致产生的孢子群落的分类组成发生变化，这表明它们对环境影响的反应。这些结果为自然存在的 AM 群落之间存在功能差异提供了有力证据，并表明特定的 AM 真菌群落可能在生态上与其本地栖息地更匹配，而不是与来自其他地点的群落相匹配。
