The effect of tillage on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities across a 3000 km latitudinal gradient in Europe

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Abstract
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are often regarded as a secondary root system for plants, supporting them with nutrients and water, thus playing an important role in agriculture. Understanding how AM fungal communities react to multiple agricultural management practices is vital for developing agricultural management systems that provide high levels of soil ecosystem services. To this goal, the present study assessed the effect of tillage practices on AM fungal communities in seven long-term agricultural experiments in Europe. Soil samples were collected from plots subjected to standard-tillage (mouldboard ploughing), reduced-tillage, and no-tillage practices. On average, no-tillage enhanced soil AM fungal richness and Shannon diversity by 23% and 21% relative to standard-tillage, respectively, with substantial site-specific variation across the seven study sites. No-tillage significantly increased soil AM fungal α-diversity at four of the seven sites, while reduced tillage induced significant increases in soil AM fungal α-diversity at two sites. Furthermore, the responses of dominant AM fungal taxa to tillage practices were site-specific, and soil pH and organic phosphorus were identified as key factors shaping AM fungal community structure. Overall, these findings demonstrate that tillage practices exert a strong influence on soil AM fungal communities.

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