Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
New Phytol. 2019 Jul;223(1):475-486. doi: 10.1111/nph.15742. Epub 2019 Mar 14.
Soil fertility influences plant community structure, yet few studies have focused on how this influence is affected by the type of mycorrhizal association formed by tree species within local communities. We examined the relationship of aboveground biomass (AGB) and diversity of adult trees with soil fertility (nitrogen, phosphorus, organic matter, etc.) in the context of different spatial distributions of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) trees in a temperate forest in Northeast China. Diversity showed a positive trend along the soil fertility gradient driven mostly by a positive relationship between AM tree abundance and soil fertility. By contrast, the AGB showed a negative trend along the soil fertility gradient driven mostly by a negative relationship between EM tree AGB and soil fertility. Furthermore, the opposite trend in the AGB and tree species diversity along the soil fertility gradient led to an overall negative diversity-biomass relationship at the 50-m scale but not the 20-m scale. These results suggest that tree mycorrhizal associations play a critical role in driving forest community structure along soil fertility gradients and highlight the importance of tree mycorrhizal associations in influencing how the diversity-ecosystem function (e.g. biomass) relationships change with soil fertility.
土壤肥力会影响植物群落结构，但很少有研究关注这种影响是如何受到当地群落中树种形成的菌根类型的影响。我们研究了在中国东北温带森林中，丛枝菌根（AM）和外生菌根（EM）树木的不同空间分布情况下，地上生物量（AGB）和成年树木多样性与土壤肥力（氮、磷、有机质等）之间的关系。多样性呈现出随着土壤肥力梯度增加的趋势，主要是由于 AM 树种丰度与土壤肥力之间呈正相关关系。相比之下，AGB 呈现出随着土壤肥力梯度降低的趋势，主要是由于 EM 树种的 AGB 与土壤肥力之间呈负相关关系。此外，AGB 和物种多样性沿着土壤肥力梯度的相反趋势导致在 50 米尺度上而不是 20 米尺度上出现整体负的多样性-生物量关系。这些结果表明，树木菌根关系在沿着土壤肥力梯度驱动森林群落结构方面起着关键作用，并强调了树木菌根关系在影响多样性-生态系统功能（如生物量）关系如何随土壤肥力变化方面的重要性。
