Molecular community ecology of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

The benefits that host plants gain from the AM interaction depend on the identities of both plants and AM fungi involved. There is evidence that AM fungal species and isolates can differ in terms of benefits provided to the host (Munkvold et al. 2004). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi potentially have a large impact on the competitive interactions between plant species (Facelli et al. 2010; Moora and Zobel 2010). However, meta-analysis of various studies has shown that analysis of such benefits is incredibly complex and involves a multitude of biotic and abiotic factors (Hoeksema et al. 2010). Thus, it has been proposed that diversity of AM fungal communities may be a major driver of the dynamics of terrestrial plant communities (van der Heijden and Cornelissen 2002; Bever et al. 2010; Klironomos et al. 2011; Zobel and Öpik 2014).