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Nitrogen enrichment causes minimal changes in arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization but shifts community composition—evidence from rDNA data

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Abstract

Intracellular arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) colonization was compared between nitrogen (NH4NO3) fertilized (10 g N m−2) and nonfertilized tallgrass prairie plots. In the microscopic analyses of host roots, only intracellular coils showed an increasing trend as a result of N fertilization, whereas intracellular colonization by arbuscules, hyphae, or vesicles did not differ between the N treatments. Clone libraries established from pooled PCR products of AM fungi contained exclusively species of Glomus; no other genera were detected indicating that Glomus spp. dominated the host roots. Comparisons between observed and random topologies indicated that cloned sequence placement covaried with N treatment: unique clades within Glomus originated exclusively from N-fertilized or nonfertilized treatments. We conclude that the communities of dominant and most commonly occurring AM fungi changed in response to N amendment, although the root colonization showed minimal or no response.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by Kansas State University BRIEF program and EPSCoR grant No. 9874732 with matching support from the State of Kansas and National Science Foundation (DEB-0344838) (to A.J.). Justin Trowbridge was supported by Konza Prairie LTER “Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program” (National Science Foundation DBI-0243890 to B.K. Sandercock, W.K. Dodds, K.B. Gido, and G.W. Wilson): Conservation of the tallgrass prairie. Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS) maintained the field sites and was supported by National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research Program (LTER). Louise Egerton-Warburton, Charles L. Kramer, Nicholas B. Simpson, and two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on early drafts of this manuscript

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  1. Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Ari Jumpponen, Justin Trowbridge, Keerthi Mandyam & Loretta Johnson

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  1. Ari Jumpponen
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Correspondence to Ari Jumpponen.

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Jumpponen, A., Trowbridge, J., Mandyam, K. et al. Nitrogen enrichment causes minimal changes in arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization but shifts community composition—evidence from rDNA data. Biol Fertil Soils 41, 217–224 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-005-0845-8

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