Diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal spore communities and its relations to plants under increased temperature and precipitation in a natural grassland

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form mutualisms with most plant species, and therefore, understanding how AMF communities will respond to climate change is essential for predictions of changes in plant communities. To evaluate the impact of global climate change on AMFs and plant-AMF interactions in a natural grassland in Inner Mongolia, both artificial warming and watering treatments were assigned to experimental plots. Our results indicate that (1) warming and precipitation significantly affected the relative spore abundance of abundant sporulating AMF species; (2) the relative abundance of weak sporulating AMF species and AMF diversity decreased under experimental warming; (3) evidence was found that the composition of the AMF community in a given year might be correlated with plant community composition in the following year; and (4) grasses and forbs showing different preferences to Claroideoglomus etunicatum or Ambispora gerdemannii dominated plots. Our results imply that climate change appears to induce changes in AMF assemblages with knock-on effects on grassland plant communities. AMF communities may play a much more important role than we have thought in the responses of ecosystem to global climate changes.