Fungal-Mediated Above–Belowground Interactions: The Community Approach, Stability, Evolution, Mechanisms, and Applications

Abstract

Within this chapter, we will focus on above-belowground interactions in which belowground organisms influence aboveground organisms (or vice versa) primarily via a shared host plant associated with a fungus (for ease throughout the chapter, we will refer to these as "fungal-mediated above-belowground interactions"). Almost exclusively, the fungi studied mediating these above-belowground interactions are belowground and commonly considered to be mutualistic (e.g. mycorrhizal fungi, plant-growth promoting fungi (PGPF), or endophytes), and the aboveground organisms are insects (e.g. herbivores and pollinators) visiting host plants. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi associate with over 80% of plant species, obligately depend on plants, and act as root mutualists whose hyphae exploit soil areas that plants cannot access themselves, and deliver nutrients (predominantly phosphorus, but also nitrogen and trace minerals) to plant roots in return for carbon. Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are facultative root mutualists that associate with root tips and whose