TY - JOUR
T1 - Nutrient foraging by mycorrhizas
T2 - From species functional traits to ecosystem processes
AU - Chen, Weile
AU - Koide, Roger T.
AU - Eissenstat, David M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to the many researchers who contributed to the database of Table. This research was supported by the DOE Terrestrial Ecosystems Program (DE-SC0012003) and US National Science Foundation (IOS 1120482), including the NSF Critical Zone Observatory Program grants to C. Duffy (EAR 07-25019) and S. Brantley (EAR 12-39285, EAR 13-31726). This work was also partially supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Federal Appropriations under Project PEN04591 and Accession number 1006803.
Funding Information:
base of Table 1. This research was supported by the DOE Terrestrial Ecosystems Program (DE-SC0012003) and US National Science Foundation (IOS 1120482), including the NSF Critical Zone Observatory Program grants to C. Duffy (EAR 07-25019) and S. Brantley (EAR 12-39285, EAR 13-31726). This work was also partially supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Federal Appropriations under Project PEN04591 and Accession number 1006803.
Funding Information:
U.S. Department of Energy, DOE Terrestrial Ecosystems Program, Grant/Award Number: DE-SC0012003; National Science Foundation, Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, Grant/Award Number: IOS 1120482; National Science Foundation, NSF Critical Zone Observatory Program, Grant/Award Number: EAR 07-25019, EAR 12-39285 and EAR 13-31726; USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Federal Appropriations under Project PEN04591 and Accession number 1006803.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Authors. Functional Ecology © 2018 British Ecological Society
PY - 2018/4
Y1 - 2018/4
N2 - Plant roots and the associated mycorrhizal fungal hyphae often selectively proliferate into patchily distributed soil nutrient hotspots, but interactions between these two components of a mycorrhizal root system are usually ignored or experimentally isolated in nutrient foraging studies. From studies in which both roots and mycorrhizal hyphae had access to nutrient hotspots, we compiled data on root foraging precision (increase in roots in nutrient hotspots relative to outside hotspots) of plant species from different ecosystems, ranging from temperate grasslands to subtropical forests. We found that root foraging precision across the wide range of plant species was strongly influenced by root morphology and mycorrhizal type. The precision of root nutrient foraging, as a plant functional trait, may coordinate with other root traits that are related to the economics of nutrient acquisition. High foraging precision is expected to associate with the strategy of fast return on the investment in roots, such as low construction cost, high metabolic rate and rapid turnover. Nutrient foraging by mycorrhizal fungi alone may be influenced by functional traits such as hyphal exploration distance, hyphal turnover, and hyphal uptake capacity and efficiency, but such data are limited to a small portion of mycorrhizal fungal species. We propose a conceptual framework in which to simulate nitrogen and phosphorus acquisition from both nutrient hotspots and outside hotspots in mixed-species plant communities. Simulation outputs suggest that plant species with varying root morphology and mycorrhizal type can be adaptive to a range of nutrient heterogeneity. Although there are still knowledge gaps related to nutrient foraging, as well as many unexplored plant and fungal species, we suggest that scaling nutrient foraging from individual plants to communities would advance understanding of plant species interactions and below-ground ecosystem function. A plain language summary is available for this article.
AB - Plant roots and the associated mycorrhizal fungal hyphae often selectively proliferate into patchily distributed soil nutrient hotspots, but interactions between these two components of a mycorrhizal root system are usually ignored or experimentally isolated in nutrient foraging studies. From studies in which both roots and mycorrhizal hyphae had access to nutrient hotspots, we compiled data on root foraging precision (increase in roots in nutrient hotspots relative to outside hotspots) of plant species from different ecosystems, ranging from temperate grasslands to subtropical forests. We found that root foraging precision across the wide range of plant species was strongly influenced by root morphology and mycorrhizal type. The precision of root nutrient foraging, as a plant functional trait, may coordinate with other root traits that are related to the economics of nutrient acquisition. High foraging precision is expected to associate with the strategy of fast return on the investment in roots, such as low construction cost, high metabolic rate and rapid turnover. Nutrient foraging by mycorrhizal fungi alone may be influenced by functional traits such as hyphal exploration distance, hyphal turnover, and hyphal uptake capacity and efficiency, but such data are limited to a small portion of mycorrhizal fungal species. We propose a conceptual framework in which to simulate nitrogen and phosphorus acquisition from both nutrient hotspots and outside hotspots in mixed-species plant communities. Simulation outputs suggest that plant species with varying root morphology and mycorrhizal type can be adaptive to a range of nutrient heterogeneity. Although there are still knowledge gaps related to nutrient foraging, as well as many unexplored plant and fungal species, we suggest that scaling nutrient foraging from individual plants to communities would advance understanding of plant species interactions and below-ground ecosystem function. A plain language summary is available for this article.
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U2 - 10.1111/1365-2435.13041
DO - 10.1111/1365-2435.13041
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85044919606
SN - 0269-8463
VL - 32
SP - 858
EP - 869
JO - Functional Ecology
JF - Functional Ecology
IS - 4
ER -