Ectomycorrhizal abundance and community composition shifts with drought: Predictions from tree rings

Mycorrhizae play a key role in ecosystem dynamics, and it is important to understand how environmental stress and climate change affect these symbionts. Several climate models predict that the intercontinental western United States will experience an increase in extreme precipitation events and warming temperatures. In 1996, northern Arizona, USA, experienced a 100-year drought that caused high local mortality of pinyon pine (Pinus edulis), a dominant tree of the southwest. We compared trunk growth, water potentials, and ectomycorrhizal dynamics for surviving trees at three high-mortality sites and adjacent low-mortality sites. Four major patterns emerged. First, surviving trees at sites that suffered high mortality...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Arizona, Ecology, Pinus edulis, USA (northern), climate-change effects, All tags... community structure, drought effects, ectomycorrhizal fungi, intermediate-host plant stress hypothesis, tree rings predict ectomycorrizal colonization, Fewer tags