Mycorrhizal traits and plant communities: perspectives for integration

Plant functional type- and trait-based approaches to understanding vegetation dynamics are gradually gaining popularity. However, plant mycorrhizal traits are rarely considered in plant trait databases and are almost totally neglected in trait-based plant community studies, despite more than 90% of the land flora being mycorrhizal. In this paper I describe and define the mycorrhizal traits of plant species, notably mycorrhizal type, mycorrhizal status, mycorrhizal flexibility and mycorrhizal dependency, which potentially influence plant distribution and community structure. I propose ways of using these traits for large-scale synthetic studies for understanding the role of mycorrhizal symbiosis in vegetation dynamics. I suggest considering plant community mycorrhization - community means of mycorrhizal traits weighted by plant species abundances - and suggest an index of mycorrhization to describe the mycorrhizal trait composition of plant communities.