Alterations in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal abundance during tallgrass prairie restoration: Implications for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

Grassland restoration following agriculture is often plant-focused, but our results show arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are critical for restoring soil biodiversity and functioning. We found AMF abundance is the best predictor of physically protected soil carbon. Soil microbial diversity is reduced in bare soil compared to rhizosphere soil, associated with lower relative abundance of AMF according to phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiles. Our findings inspired construction a robust ecological model to predict physically protected soil carbon and determine if metagenomic assessments show similar responses as PLFA profiles. We are examining how our emerging models could improve restoration ecology.