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Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Arbuscular mycorrhizae reduce the response of important plant functional traits to drought and salinity. A meta-analysis study

Florencia Gobbo A , María José Corriale B C , Ayelén Gázquez D , César Daniel Bordenave D , David Bilenca A C and Ana Menéndez https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4545-7330 A C *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Facultad de ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Piso 4° Pabellón II Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires 1428, Argentina.

B Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Piso 4° Pabellón II Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires 1428, Argentina.

C Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Piso 4° Pabellón II Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires 1428, Argentina.

D Instituto ‘Cavanilles’ de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva (ICBiBE), Fac. CC. Biológicas, Universitat de València, Burjassot, Valencia 46100, Spain.

* Correspondence to: anamen@bg.fcen.uba.ar

Handling Editor: Tim Cavagnaro

Functional Plant Biology 50(5) 407-415 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP22242
Submitted: 11 June 2022  Accepted: 6 March 2023   Published: 24 March 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

We aimed at exploring the plant functional traits whose responses to drought or salinity are altered by the presence of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM). We performed a meta-analysis across 114 articles spanning 110 plant species or cultivars. We quantified the size effect of AM symbiosis on the stress response of several functional traits, using linear mixed model analysis (LMM). Correlation analysis between functional traits and total biomass responses to stresses were also performed through LMM. The literature search and further selection yielded seven functional traits, extracted from 114 laboratory studies, including 888 observations and 110 plant species/cultivars. Evidence for significant effects of predictor variables (type of stress, AM symbiosis and/or their interaction) on functional trait response were found for leaf area ratio (LAR), root mass fraction (RMF) and root–shoot (R:S) ratio. Our results provided evidence to accept the hypothesis that AM fungal inoculation may reduce the stress response of these plant functional traits by decreasing its magnitude. We also found a weak correlation between stress responses of these traits and total biomass variation. Although our literature search and data collection were intensive and our results robust, the scope of our conclusions is limited by the agronomical bias of plant species targeted by the meta-analysis. Further knowledge on non-cultivable plant species and better understanding of the mechanisms ruling resources allocation in plants would allow more generalised conclusions.

Keywords: arbuscular mycorrhizas, carbon allocation, drought stress, linear mixed-effects models, meta-analysis, plant response, salinity stress.


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