Funneliformis mosseae influences leaf decomposition by altering microbial communities under saline-alkali conditions.

Recent studies have indicated that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can influence decomposition of organic materials. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here we investigated whether AMF influence the decomposition of leaf litters and change the associated litter bacterial and fungal communities and whether this effect is altered by the level of soil saline-alkali. A pot experiment was conducted using Trifolium repens as host plant without or with AMF (Funneliformis mosseae) and with two levels of soil saline-alkali (0 and 200 mmol/L). Litterbags with different mesh size were used to measure the effect of AMF on decomposition. Our study found that AMF significantly accelerated leaf litter decomposition under both non-saline-alkali and saline-alkali conditions. The composition of bacterial and fungal communities was also altered by AMF independent of soil saline-alkali conditions. For bacterial community, AMF increased the richness but not the diversity and increased the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Nitrospirota. For fungal community, the richness and diversity were higher in AMF than in non-AMF treatment. AMF significantly resulted in a decrease of the relative abundance of Ascomycota but an increase of the relative abundance of Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota, Mortierellomycota and Rozellomycota. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that AMF increased leaf litter decomposition under saline-alkali conditions primarily by affecting bacterial community composition. Together, we show that AMF increase decomposition and alter the bacterial and fungal communities, and that these effects are not modulated by the level of soil saline-alkali.