- Titel
- The role of mycorrhizal fungi in nutrient dynamics and plant-soil interactions
- Zitierfähige Url:
- https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-1004062
- Datum der Einreichung
- 18.08.2025
- Datum der Verteidigung
- 17.10.2025
- Abstract (EN)
- Across most of the world’s biomes, ecosystem productivity is constrained by nutrient availability. However, nutrient deposition through anthropogenic activities have fundamentally altered global nutrient cycles, leading to changes in nutrient availability and weakening the typically positive relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Mitigating these impacts and closing nutrient cycles requires a deeper understanding of the ecological drivers shaping the spatial and temporal distribution of nutrients. Among these drivers, mycorrhizal symbioses are central due to their key role in plant nutrient acquisition. This dissertation investigates how interactions between mycorrhizal fungi, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling shape ecosystem dynamics. To develop a mechanistic understanding of the role of mycorrhizal fungi in mediating nutrient dynamics and plant-soil interactions, this thesis comprises three studies that span a broad spectrum of indicators such as elemental concentrations in soils, plant foliage, litter, and leachate, and ecosystem responses such as plant community productivity and diversity. Two complementary experimental platforms were used: the MyDiv tree diversity experiment, examining how tree species richness and mycorrhizal type jointly affect nutrient cycling, and a mesocosm grassland experiment at the iDiv Ecotron facility, investigating how arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi mediate ecosystem responses caused by resource inequality. The results reveal that mycorrhizal fungi play distinct roles in nutrient dynamics, particularly in aboveground cycling of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P), with clear differences between arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal fungi. However, contrary to expectations, combining functionally different mycorrhizal types in diverse tree communities did not improve nutrient dynamics, such as C, N, and P concentrations and pools, nor enhanced litter production. While tree species richness and mycorrhizal type had limited influence on total annual litter production, a one-year assessment revealed substantial monthly variation in litterfall quality and quantity. In parallel, the grassland experiment demonstrated that increasing resource inequality negatively affected plant communities and especially P cycling, above- and belowground. However, the extent to which mycorrhizal fungi buffered these effects on ecosystem functioning remained unclear. Together, these findings highlight the importance of incorporating spatial and temporal resolution into ecological experiments and subsequent analyses. Such approaches are essential to elucidate the role of mycorrhizal fungi in nutrient cycling and to determine how nutrient availability, uptake, and storage by primary producers can be optimized to support or restore ecosystem structure and function, including in ecological restoration contexts.
- Anderes Format
- Mycorrhizal type and tree diversity affect foliar elemental pools and stoichiometry
Link: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19732 Resource inequality limits transfer of nutrients from soils to plants in experimental grassland - Freie Schlagwörter (EN)
- Nutrient dynamics, Mycorrhizal fungi, Tree species richness, Resource inequality
- Klassifikation (DDC)
- 570
- Den akademischen Grad verleihende / prüfende Institution
- Universität Leipzig, Leipzig
- Version / Begutachtungsstatus
- publizierte Version / Verlagsversion
- URN Qucosa
- urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-1004062
- Veröffentlichungsdatum Qucosa
- 18.11.2025
- Dokumenttyp
- Dissertation
- Sprache des Dokumentes
- Englisch
- Deutsch
- Lizenz / Rechtehinweis
CC BY-NC 4.0- Inhaltsverzeichnis
Glossary ................................................................................................................. 7 Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ 9 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 13 1. Background ............................................................................................................. 13 Humans are drivers of global changes in nutrient cycling ............................................... 13 Ecological drivers of nutrient cycling – Mycorrhizal fungi .............................................. 14 Major elements relevant for plant growth and ecosystem functioning ............................... 16 Spatial variation of nutrient dynamics ........................................................................... 17 Temporal variation of nutrient dynamics ....................................................................... 19 The role of biodiversity in nutrient cycling .................................................................... 19 2. Research objectives and outline ................................................................................. 21 3. The MyDiv experiment and the iDiv Ecotron facility as experimental platforms ................. 24 The MyDiv experiment .............................................................................................. 24 The iDiv Ecotron and the NUTRITION experiment ......................................................... 26 References .................................................................................................................. 28 Chapter I .............................................................................................................. 41 Transition I – II ..................................................................................................... 71 Chapter II ............................................................................................................. 75 Transition II – III ................................................................................................. 107 Chapter III ........................................................................................................... 111 Discussion .......................................................................................................... 153 Main findings of the three studies ................................................................................. 153 Do diversity and mycorrhizal types jointly drive ecosystem productivity and functioning? .... 155 The role of mycorrhizal fungi in aboveground C and N cycling ........................................ 157 The role of mycorrhizal fungi in P cycling ...................................................................... 158 Weak influences on belowground nutrient cycling in both experiments ............................. 159 Spatial and temporal dynamics of nutrient cycling .......................................................... 161 Time as essential variable in experimental ecology ......................................................... 162 Gaps, challenges, and opportunities of experimental approaches .................................... 163 Perspectives for practitioners, politics, and society ......................................................... 164 References ................................................................................................................ 166 Summary ............................................................................................................ 175 Zusammenfassung ............................................................................................... 181 Supplementary Information .................................................................................. 189 Supplementary Information for Chapter I ....................................................................... 189 Supplementary Information for Chapter III ..................................................................... 189 Supplementary Information for Chapter II (not published): ............................................... 192 Appendix .......................................................................................................... 222 SelbstständigkeitserklärungNachweise über Anteile der Co-Autoren
Link: https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/oidcStart?redirectUri=%2Fdoi%2F10.1002%2Foik.11103