Guillen Otero, T.; Kessler, M. & Homeier, J. (2024): <b>Fern mycorrhizae do not respond to fertilization in a tropical montane forest</b>. <i>Plant-Environment Interactions</i> <b>5</b>(2), e10139.
Resource Description
Title:
Fern mycorrhizae do not respond to fertilization in a tropical montane forest
FOR816dw ID:
2005
Publication Date:
2024-03-29
License and Usage Rights:
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Resource Owner(s):
Individual:
Thais Guillen Otero
Contact:
email:
webmaster <at> tropicalmountainforest.org
Individual:
Michael Kessler
Contact:
email:
webmaster <at> tropicalmountainforest.com
Individual:
Jürgen Homeier
Contact:
email:
jhomeie <at> gwdg.de
Faculty of Resource Management
University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HAWK)
37077 Göttingen
Germany
Abstract:
Ferns are known to have a lower incidence of mycorrhization than angiosperms. It<br/>
has been suggested that this results from carbon being more limiting to fern growth<br/>
than nutrient availability, but this assertion has not been tested yet. In the present<br/>
study, we took advantage of a fertilization experiment with nitrogen and phosphorus<br/>
on cloud forest plots of the Ecuadorean Andes for 15 years. A previous analysis<br/>
revealed changes in the abundances of fern species in the fertilized plots compared<br/>
to the control plots and hypothesized that this might be related to the responses of<br/>
the mycorrhizal relationships to nutrient availability. We revisited the plots to assess<br/>
the root-associated<br/>
fungal communities of two epiphytic and two terrestrial fern<br/>
species that showed shifts in abundance. We sampled and analyzed the roots of 125<br/>
individuals following a metabarcoding approach. We recovered 1382 fungal ASVs, with<br/>
a dominance of members of Tremellales (Basidiomycota) and Heliotales (Ascomycota).<br/>
The fungal diversity was highly partitioned with little overlap between individuals. We<br/>
found marked differences between terrestrial and epiphytic species, with the latter<br/>
fundamentally missing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). We found no effect of<br/>
fertilization on the diversity or relative abundance of the fungal assemblages. Still, we<br/>
observed a direct impact of phosphorus fertilization on its concentration in the fern<br/>
leaves. We conclude that fern–fungi relationships in the study site are not restricted<br/>
by nutrient availability and suggest the existence of little specificity on the fungal<br/>
partners relative to the host fern species.
