Plant isotopic composition provides insight into mechanisms underlying growth stimulation by AM fungi in a semiarid environment
José I. Querejeta A B C , Michael F. Allen B , María M. Alguacil A and Antonio Roldán AA Departamento de Conservación de Suelos y Aguas, Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CEBAS-CSIC), PO Box 4195, Campus Universitario de Espinardo 30 100 Murcia, Spain.
B Center for Conservation Biology, The University of California, Riverside, CA 92 521, USA.
C Corresponding author. Email: querejeta@cebas.csic.es
Functional Plant Biology 34(8) 683-691 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP07061
Submitted: 9 March 2007 Accepted: 16 May 2007 Published: 23 July 2007
Abstract
We hypothesised that improved plant water status and enhanced transpiration are key mechanisms involved in plant growth stimulation by native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in semiarid calcareous soils. Seedlings of the dryland shrubs Pistacia lentiscus L. and Retama sphaerocarpa L. were pre-inoculated with a mixture of eight native Glomus spp. fungi, or left un-inoculated, before transplanting into a degraded site in south-eastern Spain. Pre-inoculated Pistacia and Retama shrubs grew faster after transplanting, despite spontaneous colonisation of control plants by local AMF. Pre-inoculation enhanced shoot water content and shoot δ15N in both shrub species. Increased potassium uptake and improved water relations were key mechanisms behind growth stimulation by native AMF in Pistacia. Shoot δ18O (a proxy measure of stomatal conductance) was significantly less negative in AMF-inoculated than in control Pistacia seedlings, indicating enhanced cumulative transpiration in the former. In contrast, shoot δ18O was unaffected by AMF inoculation in Retama, a leafless leguminous shrub with photosynthetic stems. Growth stimulation by native AMF in Retama was attributed to increased phosphorus uptake, enhanced atmospheric nitrogen fixation and a largely nutrient-mediated improvement of plant water status. Shoot δ13C was not significantly influenced by AMF inoculation in either shrub species, thus suggesting roughly parallel upshifts in photosynthetic and transpiration rates which did not affect plant water use efficiency.
Additional keywords: Pistacia lentiscus, Retama sphaerocarpa, δ13C, δ15N, δ18O.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the EU + CICYT co-financed FEDER programme (1FD97–0507 FOREST) and by the Biocomplexity Program (DEB 9981548) of the US National Science Foundation. JI Querejeta acknowledges a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship and a Ramón y Cajal contract from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.
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