A conserved arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal core-species community colonizes potato roots in the Andes

Plant-symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi(AMF)are of high global ecological and economic importance,but describing environmental communities of AMF at the species level remains a challenge,despite the need to understand AMF-plant preferences and to apply AMF in sustainable agriculture.Here,the potato-associated AMF species community composition was assessed for three Andean countries along an altitudinal gradient and at different plant stages,by using 454 GS-FLX+sequencing of a 760 bp LSU rRNA gene PCR amplicon.Two methods were compared:defining OTUs based on a simple sequence similarity threshold,or affiliating reference sequences to species based on a high throughput phylogenetic annotation approach using an evolutionary placement algorithm(EPA).The EPA-based approach was not only more precise,but also fundamental to robustly unveil the AMF species community composition.The principal advantage of this approach was also demonstrated by using artificially constructed datasets based on validated public database sequences.The affiliation of sequence reads to species using phylogenetic annotation revealed a surprisingly conserved AMF core-species community structure in Andean potatoes,regardless of different plant stages and environmental factors.In total,41 species were detected and in some cases more than 25 species were found colonizing an individual root system.Acaulospora species were identified as dominant colonizers,co-occurring with Cetraspora nodosa and certain Claroideoglomus and Rhizophagus species in most potato root samples.

Effect of Soil Properties on Tree Distribution across an Agricultural Landscape on a Tropical Mountain, Tanzania

Distribution of tree species can result in many factors including environmental variables, biotic interaction and management. Better understanding of these interacting factors is crucial in planning management interventions especially in managed landscapes: this study on the effect of soil properties on tree species distribution in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania will aid in this. Standard tree inventory procedures and soil sampling techniques were used to survey 48 plots from altitudinal level of 680 to 1690 m a.s.l. along 25 km long transect. All trees ≥ 5 cm at DBH were recorded, while soils were sampled from top and subsoils (0 - 20 and 21 - 50 cm depths). Tree species distribution index was assessed through abundance and frequency, while species interaction with environmental variables was assessed using Detrended Correspondence Analysis. Distribution index indicated that 77% of tree species were categorized as rare, while 10% and 13% were categorized as occasional and abundant respectively. Soil organic carbon and moisture content have shown high correlation with tree species (r > 0.8, p < 0.01), while ExMg, soil pH, P, ExCa, ExK, ExNa and bulky density indicated less correlation (r < 0.2, p < 0.001). The DCA-1 axis explained nearly 70% of the relationships between soil properties and tree species distribution: suitability of tree species were influenced by soil properties across the land use systems which exhibited different soil types. Different tree species communities correspond differently with soil properties between the land use systems. Fewer tree species spread in the lowland, which is known to have saline soils. Therefore, despite intensive human management of the landscape, tree species indicated distribution patterns in line with the soil properties.