Record ID No. |
3642 |
Author(s) |
Field, K.J., Cameron, D.D., Leake, J.R., Tille, S., Bidartondo, M.I., Beerling, D.J. , 2012 |
Affiliation |
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK. k.field@sheffield.ac.uk |
Title |
Contrasting arbuscular mycorrhizal responses of vascular and non-vascular plants to a simulated Palaeozoic CO2 decline |
Source. Vol.(no):Page |
Nature Communications, 3:835. |
Categories |
Arbuscular Mycorrhiza |
Subjects |
Soil plant relations |
Sub-subjects |
Photosynthesis |
Host |
Plants |
Organism |
AMF |
Country |
UK, Europe |
Abstracts |
The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal symbiosis is widely hypothesized to have promoted the evolution of land plants from rootless gametophytes to rooted sporophytes during the mid-Palaeozoic (480-360 Myr, ago), at a time coincident with a 90% fall in the atmospheric CO2 concentration ([CO2 ] a). Here we show using standardized dual isotopic tracers (14 C and 33 P) that AM symbiosis efficiency (defined as plant P gain per unit of C invested into fungi) of liverwort gametophytes declines, but increases in the sporophytes of vascular plants (ferns and angiosperms), at 440 p.p.m. compared with 1,500 p.p.m. [CO2 ] a. These contrasting responses are associated with larger AM hyphal networks, and structural advances in vascular plant water-conducting systems, promoting P transport that enhances AM efficiency at 440 p.p.m. [CO2 ]
a. Our results suggest that non-vascular land plants not only faced intense competition for light, as vascular land floras grew taller in the Palaeozoic, but also markedly reduced efficiency and total capture of P as [CO2 ]a fell. |