Abstract
Given the current trends in climate change, extreme weather events are expected to increase in strength and frequency. Such events can impact species survival and species interactions. One of the most ubiquitous symbioses on earth is the nutrient exchange partnership between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and their host plants. While past work has shown that mycorrhizal fungi can help alleviate stress, it is unknown how phosphorus uptake by plants to fungi is affected by extreme weather events, such as flooding and heat waves. To test this response, we grew Medicago truncatula host plants with or without mycorrhizal fungi and then exposed them to extreme weather treatments: increasing soil temperature by 12°C, or by flooding the plant roots for 7 days. We measured plant and fungal performance, and quantified phosphorus (P) uptake before and after extreme weather treatments using a technique in which we tagged apatite, a form of rock phosphorus, with fluorescing quantum-dots (QDs) nanoparticles. We then measured fluorescence in root and shoot tissue at harvest. We found that plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi were affected by soil flooding, with plant survival, fungal colonization and QD-apatite uptake decreasing under flooded conditions. We did not see these negative effects in the heat treatment. While the presence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affected plant biomass allocation, leading to an increase in shoot biomass, the symbiosis did not increase plant survival, total biomass or QD uptake in either treatment. More generally, we found host tissue contained roughly 80% more QD-apatite from the pre-treatment compared to the post-treatment nutrient injection. Future studies should focus on various plant-fungal combinations to create databases on which predictive models to extreme weather events can be constructed.
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Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
Soil flooding decreased plant survival in Medicago truncatula.
- Taxon
- Medicago truncatula
Medicago truncatulae0 - Treatment
- soil floodinge1
- Outcome
- plant survivale1
- Direction
- decreasinge1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we grew Medicago truncatula host plants with or without mycorrhizal fungi”
e1“plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi were affected by soil flooding, with plant survival, fungal colonization and QD-apatite uptake decreasing under flooded conditions”
Claim · model-written summary
Soil flooding decreased fungal colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in Medicago truncatula.
- Taxon
- Medicago truncatulaMedicago truncatulae0
- Treatment
- soil floodinge1
- Interactor
- arbuscular mycorrhizal fungie1symbiont
- Outcome
- fungal colonizatione1
- Direction
- decreasinge1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we grew Medicago truncatula host plants with or without mycorrhizal fungi”
e1“plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi were affected by soil flooding, with plant survival, fungal colonization and QD-apatite uptake decreasing under flooded conditions”
Claim · model-written summary
Soil flooding decreased QD-apatite uptake in Medicago truncatula.
- Taxon
- Medicago truncatulaMedicago truncatulae0
- Treatment
- soil floodinge1
- Outcome
- QD-apatite uptakee1
- Direction
- decreasinge1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we grew Medicago truncatula host plants with or without mycorrhizal fungi”
e1“plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi were affected by soil flooding, with plant survival, fungal colonization and QD-apatite uptake decreasing under flooded conditions”
Claim · model-written summary
The heat treatment, increasing soil temperature by 12°C, did not produce the negative effects on plant survival, fungal colonization and QD-apatite uptake.
- Taxon
- Medicago truncatulaMedicago truncatulae0
- Treatment
- increasing soil temperature by 12°Ce5
- Outcome
- these negative effectse2
- Direction
- did not seee2
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we grew Medicago truncatula host plants with or without mycorrhizal fungi”
e2“We did not see these negative effects in the heat treatment”
e5“increasing soil temperature by 12°C, or by flooding the plant roots for 7 days”
Claim · model-written summary
Mycorrhizal fungi did not increase plant survival, total biomass or QD uptake in either treatment in Medicago truncatula.
- Taxon
- Medicago truncatulaMedicago truncatulae0
- Treatment
- mycorrhizal fungie0
- Outcome
- plant survival, total biomass or QD uptakee3
- Direction
- did not increasee3
- Comparator
- without mycorrhizal fungie0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we grew Medicago truncatula host plants with or without mycorrhizal fungi”
e3“the symbiosis did not increase plant survival, total biomass or QD uptake in either treatment”
Claim · model-written summary
The presence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affected biomass allocation and increased shoot biomass in Medicago truncatula.
- Taxon
- Medicago truncatulaMedicago truncatulae0
- Treatment
- presence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungie4
- Interactor
- arbuscular mycorrhizal fungie4symbiont
- Outcome
- shoot biomasse4
- Direction
- increasee4
- Qualifier
- affected plant biomass allocatione4
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we grew Medicago truncatula host plants with or without mycorrhizal fungi”
e4“While the presence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affected plant biomass allocation, leading to an increase in shoot biomass”
Claim · model-written summary
Host tissue contained roughly 80% more QD-apatite from the pre-treatment than from the post-treatment nutrient injection.
- Taxon
- Medicago truncatulaMedicago truncatulae0
- Organ / stage
- host tissuee6
- Treatment
- pre-treatmente6
- Outcome
- QD-apatitee6
- Direction
- moree6
- Value
- roughly 80%e6
- Comparator
- post-treatment nutrient injectione6
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“we grew Medicago truncatula host plants with or without mycorrhizal fungi”
e6“host tissue contained roughly 80% more QD-apatite from the pre-treatment compared to the post-treatment nutrient injection”
The same questions in other papers
mycorrhiza · growth · Medicago truncatula (barrel medic)Results differ
8 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- positive
5 papers more in this group
See all 9 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.