Soil aggregation and carbon sequestration are tightly correlated with the abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: results from long‐term field experiments
Abstract
We examined the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in ecosystems using soil aggregate stability and C and N storage as representative ecosystem processes. We utilized a wide gradient in AMF abundance, obtained through long‐term (17 and 6 years) large‐scale field manipulations. Burning and N‐fertilization increased soil AMF hyphae, glomalin‐related soil protein (GRSP) pools and water‐stable macroaggregates while fungicide applications reduced AMF hyphae, GRSP and water‐stable macroaggregates. We found that AMF abundance was a surprisingly dominant factor explaining the vast majority of variability in soil aggregation. This experimental field study, involving long‐term diverse management practices of native multispecies prairie communities, invariably showed a close positive correlation between AMF hyphal abundance and soil aggregation, and C and N sequestration. This highly significant linear correlation suggests there are serious consequences to the loss of AMF from ecosystems.
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Mycorrhiza secrete glomalin, whose extent correlates extremely well with desirable large aggregates in soil structure.
“Mycorrhiza also secrete a protein called glomalin (Gadkar and Rillig, 2006), whose extent correlates extremely well with desirable (large aggregates in) soil structure (Bedini et al., 2009;Wilson et al., 2009).”
From Breeding crop plants with deep roots: their role in sustainable carbon, nutrient and water sequestration (2011) · cites this paper as Wilson et al., 2009
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- Authors
- Wilson, G. W. T., Rice, C. W., Rillig, M. C., Springer, A., & Hartnett, D. C.
- Affiliations
- Oklahoma State University (US)
- Kansas State University (US)
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
- University of Arizona (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wilson, Gail W. T.
- Venue
- Ecology Letters
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-04-06
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 452-461
- ISSN
- 1461-023X (ISSN-L)
- 1461-0248
- OpenAlex
- W2087660544
- Cited by
- 826
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 42 · 2025: 67 · 2024: 56 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 72 · 2021: 77 · 2020: 69 · 2019: 57 · 2018: 51 · 2017: 56 · 2016: 52 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 34
- FWCI
- 33.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Ecology Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Studies
- Keywords
- arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, soil aggregation, carbon sequestration, nitrogen sequestration, glomalin-related soil protein, water-stable macroaggregates, soil carbon storage, soil nitrogen storage, prescribed burning, nitrogen fertilization, fungicide effects, native prairie, long-term field experiment
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, Carbon, Kansas, Nitrogen, Soil, Soil Microbiology, Ecosystem, Biomass, Mycorrhizae
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