Fungal soil boosts help some native grasses, hurt others
Cardoni M, Card J, Bennett JA
Mycorrhizal Networks
If you're restoring a native prairie patch or meadow, dumping the same mycorrhizal inoculant on every grass species could backfire, since this study found early-colonizing grasses actually grew worse with fungi-rich soil while later-succession grasses tolerated it better.
Scientists grew four native prairie grasses with soil containing helpful root fungi to see if it boosted growth, the way gardeners hope mycorrhizal products will. Instead, most grasses grew worse with the fungi than without, and the grasses adapted to disturbed, early-stage habitats suffered more than the ones adapted to mature, established prairies. Oddly, the amount of fungus actually growing inside the roots didn't predict which plants did better or worse, meaning you can't just check for root colonization and assume it's helping.
Key Findings
Four early-successional and four late-successional native grass species were tested against five AMF-rich trap-cultured soil inocula in a greenhouse trial.
Biomass responses were generally negative overall, but late-successional grasses showed less negative growth responses than early-successional grasses.
Neither hyphal nor arbuscular colonization levels predicted plant biomass outcomes, showing physical root colonization doesn't reliably indicate functional benefit.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Adding fungi-rich soil to help native grasses grow doesn't always work as expected: grasses that naturally colonize disturbed ground fared worse than late-succession prairie grasses when given the same mycorrhizal fungi boost, and how much fungi actually infected the roots didn't predict whether plants grew better or worse.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Contrasting growth responses of early- and late-successional native grasses to AMF-rich whole soil inocula under greenhouse conditions.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form symbioses in terrestrial ecosystems, yet plant responses to AMF-rich soil inocula are variable and do not necessarily reflect root colonization. We investiga...
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