Livne-Luzon Stav, Ovadia Ofer, Weber Gil, Avidan Yael, Migael Hen, Glassman Sydney I, Bruns Thomas D, Shemesh Hagai
Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, POB 653, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Department of Environmental Sciences, Tel-Hai College, Kiryat Shmona, 1220800, Israel.
Ecol Lett. 2017 Sep;20(9):1192-1202. doi: 10.1111/ele.12816.
The effects of spatial heterogeneity in negative biological interactions on individual performance and species diversity have been studied extensively. However, little is known about the respective effects involving positive biological interactions, including the symbiosis between plants and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi. Using a greenhouse bioassay, we explored how spatial heterogeneity of natural soil inoculum influences the performance of pine seedlings and composition of their root-associated EM fungi. When the inoculum was homogenously distributed, a single EM fungal taxon dominated the roots of most pine seedlings, reducing the diversity of EM fungi at the treatment level, while substantially improving pine seedling performance. In contrast, clumped inoculum allowed the proliferation of several different EM fungi, increasing the overall EM fungal diversity. The most dominant EM fungal taxon detected in the homogeneous treatment was also a highly beneficial mutualist, implying that the trade-off between competitive ability and mutualistic capacity does not always exist.
负面生物相互作用中的空间异质性对个体表现和物种多样性的影响已得到广泛研究。然而，对于涉及正面生物相互作用的各自影响，包括植物与外生菌根（EM）真菌之间的共生关系，我们却知之甚少。通过温室生物测定，我们探究了天然土壤接种物的空间异质性如何影响松树幼苗的表现及其根系相关EM真菌的组成。当接种物均匀分布时，单一的EM真菌分类群主导了大多数松树幼苗的根系，降低了处理水平上EM真菌的多样性，同时显著提高了松树幼苗的表现。相比之下，成团的接种物使几种不同的EM真菌得以增殖，增加了EM真菌的总体多样性。在均匀处理中检测到的最主要的EM真菌分类群也是一种非常有益的共生菌，这意味着竞争能力和共生能力之间的权衡并非总是存在。
