The Innovation Team of Improvement and Amelioration of Soil Fertility of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), in cooperation with Chinese and international scientific research institutions, have made important progress in the study of community response of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi to extreme climates. The research results were published in the internationally renowned journal in the field of botany New Phytologist (IF=10.151) with the title “Community response of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to extreme drought in a cold-temperate grassland” (Figure 1). The article reports the response of AM fungal communities to grassland extreme drought in association with plant communities, and proposes that the plants’ adaptive strategy may mediate the AM fungal community responses to extreme drought.

Figure 1 Paper Screenshot

As an important manifestation of global climate change, the frequency and intensity of climate extremes are increasing, which poses enormous threats to the stability of global and regional natural ecosystems (Smith, 2011; Reichstein et al., 2013). The unpredictable and rare nature of climate extremes has made it difficult to study their effects on natural ecosystems, while in the existing studies attention is usually paid to the above-ground vegetation ecosystems but seldom to the underground soil ecosystems. AM fungi are key plant symbionts that are widely distributed in terrestrial ecosystems and can establish symbiotic association with most land plants. They can affect plant community dynamics and ecosystem stability (Powell & Rillg, 2018). However, knowledge about how AM fungal communities respond to climate extremes in natural ecosystems remains elusive.

Figure 2 A grassland extreme drought experiment in Inner Mongolia

Based on a grassland extreme drought experiment in Inner Mongolia (Figure 2), the study took the above-ground vegetation and soil environmental factors into comprehensive consideration, and investigated the response of AM fungal communities to extreme drought in association with plant communities. The results showed that AM fungal richness and community composition exhibit high sensitivity to extreme drought and are more sensitive to intense drought than chronic drought. This community sensitivity (i.e., decline in richness and shifts in community composition) of AM fungi can be jointly explained by soil moisture, plant richness, and aboveground productivity (Figure 3). The article also discussed the response of AM fungal communities to extreme drought in association with plant communities, and proposed that the plants’ adaptive strategy mediates the AM fungal community responses to extreme drought, based on correlation analysis and structural equation model verification (Figure 4).

This study reveals the response patterns and laws of AM fungal communities to drought extremes, and provides a scientific basis for understanding the response and mechanism of soil microbial communities under climate change, as well as the coupling relationship between ground vegetation and soil microbes.

Figure 3 Response of AM fungal communities to drought extremes

Figure 4 Plant community mediates the AM fungal community responses to extreme drought

Fu Wei, a doctoral student from the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the first author. Wu Honghui, a research fellow from the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Chen Baodong, a research fellow from the Research Center for Eco-Environment Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, are the co-corresponding authors. This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.17692