Influence of plant communities and soil properties during natural vegetation restoration on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in a karst region

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are crucial for vegetation regeneration because they play an important role in plant establishment and growth. We investigated the relationships among AM fungal diversity, plant diversity, and soil properties during vegetation restoration in degraded karst ecosystems. Pyrosequencing approach was used to determine the genetic diversity and composition of AM fungal communities in four typical ecosystems of vegetation restoration (tussock (TK), shrub (SB), secondary forest (SF), and primary forest (PF)) in a karst region of southwest China. The diversity, richness, and evenness of plant species were evaluated through field surveys. Basic soil properties were measured. Plant species diversity and soil nutrient contents increased with vegetation restoration from tussock to primary forest, but the diversity of AM fungi followed the order of shrub ≈ secondary forest ≈ primary forest < tussock. The composition of AM fungi and plant communities differed significantly between ecosystems (p < 0.05). The richness of AM fungi was negatively correlated with both the plant diversity (the indices of plant Shannon–Wiener, evenness and richness) and soil properties (soil available phosphorus (AP), soil organic carbon (SOC) and pH) (p < 0.05). Redundancy analysis showed that the AM fungal communities closely linked to plant richness, soil organic carbon, soil available phosphorus and pH. These results suggest that the diversity and composition of AM fungi in karst region are influenced by plant communities and soil nutrient conditions.