Contrasting arbuscular mycorrhizal responses of vascular and non-vascular plants to a simulated Palaeozoic CO2 decline

Katie J. Field (), Duncan D. Cameron, Jonathan R. Leake, Stefanie Tille, Martin I. Bidartondo and David J. Beerling
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Katie J. Field: University of Sheffield
Duncan D. Cameron: University of Sheffield
Jonathan R. Leake: University of Sheffield
Stefanie Tille: University of Sheffield
Martin I. Bidartondo: Imperial College London
David J. Beerling: University of Sheffield

Nature Communications, 2012, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract 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 (14C and 33P) 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.

Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1831

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