Investigating ecological function of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities present in KBS-LTER agronomic treatment soils under low nutrient and drought conditions.

Agricultural systems will be facing a new challenges in the future as the climate changes. Increased variability in regional and local temperature and precipitation is predicted to occur in areas of major agricultural production. This increased variation in precipitation may occur as drought conditions, as extreme rain events, or as temporal variation in normal climatological patterns. Depending on the timing, any of these events may increase risk of crop damage and possibly lead to decreased agronomic production. AMF- plant mutualisms may contribute to a crops ability to resist damage due to drought during key fundamental growth stages, thereby reducing potential loss.

We performed a full factorial greenhouse experiment using three soil microbial treatments obtained from the four distinct KBS-LTER agronomic treatments, T1, T2, T4 and T7, to grow Zea mays var. “Nothstine” and Triticum sp. var. “Glenn” under both ambient and drought conditions. The main purpose of this experiment was to compare differences of AMF community function between treatment groups as determined by long-term agronomic land management at the KBS-LTER MSCE and also test the effects of reduced precipitation on this function. Preliminary data will be presented; data analyses are ongoing.