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Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community structure and diversity in response to 3-year conservation tillage management in a sandy loam soil in North China

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Abstract

Purpose

Modern agricultural science has greatly reduced the use of tillage. Monitoring conservation versus conventional tillage effects on soil microbes could improve our understanding of soil biochemical processes and thus help us to develop sound management strategies. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of conservation tillage on the spore community structure and the diversity of soil arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and to find out the main factors that influence these parameters.

Materials and methods

A long-term field experiment established in a sandy loam soil in Northern China has received continuous tillage management treatments for 3 years, including conventional tillage (CT), no tillage (NT), and alternating tillage (AT). Topsoil samples (0–15 cm) from four individual plots per treatment were collected for the analysis of chemical properties and fungal parameters. AM fungal spores were isolated using the wet-sieving method and identified to species level based on morphology by light microscopy. The community structure and the diversity of AM fungi were evaluated using the following parameters: spore density, relative abundance, species richness, Shannon–Wiener index (H′), evenness (E), and Simpson's index (D). Jaccard index (J) of similarity was calculated to compare AM fungal species composition under different treatments.

Results and discussion

Twenty-eight species of AM fungi within four genera, Glomus, Acaulospora, Scutellospora, and Entrophospora, were recovered from the 12 plots within the three tillage management treatments. Higher spore density, species richness, and species diversity (H′, E, and D) of AM fungi were observed in the two conservation tillage treatments, and the redundancy analysis showed that the species richness significantly correlated to soil organic carbon content (P < 0.05). The positive effects of NT and AT on the species richness were very close, while the AT had relatively greater beneficial impacts on the spore density and the evenness of AM fungi compared to the NT. The lowest Jaccard index (J) of similarity in species composition was also observed between the AT and CT treatments.

Conclusions

Soil organic carbon, the spore density, and species richness and diversity of AM fungi increased in the two conservation tillage treatments. The species richness of AM fungi significantly correlated to soil organic carbon content (P < 0.05). Compared with the CT treatment, the AT rather than the NT significantly increased the spore density and the evenness of AM fungi (P < 0.05). Thus, alternating tillage practice may be more beneficial to agroecosystem in this region.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.40801090), the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB100505), and the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISSASIP1118-3). We wish to acknowledge Qi’ao Jiang, Linyun Zhou, Jinfang Wang, and Jian Liu, of the Fengqiu Agro-Ecological Experimental Station, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for their excellent field management and support on soil sampling. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions greatly improved the quality of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Provincial Key Laboratory of Biotic Environment and Ecological Security in Anhui, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, East Beijing Road 1, Wuhu, 241000, People’s Republic of China

    Anna Yang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, East Beijing Road 71, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Junli Hu, Xiangui Lin, Anning Zhu, Junhua Wang & Jue Dai

  3. Joint Open Laboratory of Soil and the Environment, Hong Kong Baptist University & Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, East Beijing Road 71, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Junli Hu, Xiangui Lin, Junhua Wang, Jue Dai & Ming Hung Wong

  4. Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China

    Junli Hu & Ming Hung Wong

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  1. Anna Yang
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  2. Junli Hu
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  3. Xiangui Lin
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  5. Junhua Wang
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Correspondence to Xiangui Lin.

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Responsible editor: Leo Condron

A. Yang and J. Hu contributed equally and are joint first authors.

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Yang, A., Hu, J., Lin, X. et al. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community structure and diversity in response to 3-year conservation tillage management in a sandy loam soil in North China. J Soils Sediments 12, 835–843 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-012-0518-9

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