Edaphic sorting drives arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community assembly in a serpentine/non‐serpentine mosaic landscape

Abstract

Serpentine soil generates distinct plant assemblages, but it is not known how this edaphically extreme environment affects arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) assembly or how this may contribute to plant adaptation to serpentine. Our previous studies showed that serpentine and non‐serpentine adapted ecotypes of Collinisa sparsiflora associates with distinct AMF assemblages, but a common garden experiment showed that this pattern was not due to host‐fungal preference. We hypothesized that the observed differences in AMF associated with C. sparsiflora ecotypes was driven by edaphically defined AMF assemblages. To test this idea we employed a broader sampling of the plant community from five serpentine and five non‐serpentine sites in close proximity (50–150 m between sites) and identified AMF and plant species associated with root samples by amplifying rDNA and cpDNA respectively, cloning, and sequencing. We compared AMF and plant assemblages, and measured the relative contribution of distance, plant and soil factors on AMF assembly. Analyses clearly showed that serpentine and non‐serpentine AMF assemblages are distinct—with the complete absence of the non‐serpentine dominant AMF taxon on serpentine. These results show strong edaphic sorting of serpentine tolerant/adapted AMF taxa in serpentine soil and indicate a strong ecological correlation between AMF and plant tolerance to serpentine soil.