Ploughing up the wood-wide web?
Abstract
Key species groups that affect major ecological processes are vital components of community diversity. Many such key groups are found in the soil, including the mycorrhizal fungi that may connect plants into a functional ``wood-wide web''. Arbuscular mycorrhizal associations are formed by fungi of the order Glomales with 90% of land plant families, and many arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are thought to have a broad host range. Here we show that, despite this broad host range, the diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is strikingly low in arable sites compared with a woodland.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- July 1998
- DOI:
- 10.1038/28764
- Bibcode:
- 1998Natur.394..431H