COS 203-3 - Differential impact of local native and non-native sources of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on plant individuals and community at Nachusa Grasslands

Abstract: Tallgrass prairie restoration methods have come a long way since their inception, but many restorations still do not achieve similar levels of native biodiversity as remnants and are missing many important conservative species that promote ecosystem functioning. While we have increasing evidence that arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi can promote plant community biodiversity and succession in prairie restoration, there are still questions about when AM fungi may do this. This is increasingly true with more research coming out about many commercial inoculants that may not contain mutualistic or even live fungi. Therefore, in this study we collected local sources of native and non-native AM fungi from 4 remnant prairies and one post-agricultural old field, respectively, at Nachusa Grasslands to assess the impact of native AM fungi on individual and plant community composition. We took advantage of the sequence of prairie restoration plantings at Nachusa Grasslands to assess this impact through an inoculation experiment in both a new and older restoration. While we saw little plant community change in the established restoration, plant diversity during the first growing season of the new restoration was lower in plots with non-native AM fungi. Plants inoculated with AM fungi tended to survive better in the new restoration, and their growth responses to particular soil treatments varied by species in both sites. Additionally, we performed a greenhouse experiment with 12 forb species of varying levels of conservatism, testing their response to sterile soil and each source of AM fungi (six treatments total). Our results suggest that late successional or conservative plants may respond more to inoculation in general, and many species experienced the largest growth with AM fungi from one of the remnant prairie soils. This study demonstrates how sources of AM fungi are important to growth and can impact plant community composition in the early stages of restoration.