Lithological constraints on resource economies shape the mycorrhizal composition of a Bornean rain forest

Authors

• Monique Weemstra, CNRS – Université de Montpellier – Université Paul-Valéry, MontpellierFollow
• Kabir G. Peay, Stanford UniversityFollow
• Stuart J. Davies, Smithsonian Tropical Research InstituteFollow
• Mohizah Mohamad, Forest Department SarawakFollow
• Akira Itoh, Osaka City UniversityFollow
• Sylvester Tan, Smithsonian ForestGEOFollow
• Sabrina E. Russo, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

Stuart J. Davies https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8596-7522

Mohizah Mohamad https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1645-2469

Akira Itoh https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2493-1681

Kabir G. Peay https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7998-7412

Sabrina E. Russo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6788-2410

Monique Weemstra https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6994-2501

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

Published in New Phytologist 228 (2020), pp 253–268.

doi: 10.1111/nph.16672

Comments

Copyright © 2020 by the authors. Published by John Wiley for New Phytologist Trust.

Abstract

• Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) produce contrasting plant–soil feedbacks, but how these feedbacks are constrained by lithology is poorly understood.

• We investigated the hypothesis that lithological drivers of soil fertility filter plant resource economic strategies in ways that influence the relative fitness of trees with AMF or EMF symbioses in a Bornean rain forest containing species with both mycorrhizal strategies.

• Using forest inventory data on 1245 tree species, we found that although AMF-hosting trees had greater relative dominance on all soil types, with declining lithological soil fertility EMF-hosting trees became more dominant. Data on 13 leaf traits and wood density for a total of 150 species showed that variation was almost always associated with soil type, whereas for six leaf traits (structural properties; carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus ratios, nitrogen isotopes), variation was also associated with mycorrhizal strategy. EMF-hosting species had slower leaf economics than AMF-hosts, demonstrating the central role of mycorrhizal symbiosis in plant resource economies.

• At the global scale, climate has been shown to shape forest mycorrhizal composition, but here we show that in communities it depends on soil lithology, suggesting scale-dependent abiotic factors influence feedbacks underlying the relative fitness of different mycorrhizal strategies.

Includes supplementary materials.