The mycorrhizal tragedy of the commons

Henriksson, Nils (author): Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet,Institutionen för skogens ekologi och skötsel,Department of Forest Ecology and Management

Franklin, Oskar (author)

Tarvainen, Lasse, 1977 (author): Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för biologi och miljövetenskap,Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences,University of Gothenburg

Marshall, John (author): Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet,Institutionen för skogens ekologi och skötsel,Department of Forest Ecology and Management

Lundberg-Felten, Judith (author)

Eilertsen, Lill (author): Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet,Institutionen för skoglig genetik och växtfysiologi,Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology

Näsholm, Torgny (author): Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet,Institutionen för skoglig genetik och växtfysiologi,Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology

(creator_code:org_t)

2021-03-22
2021
English.
In: Ecology Letters. - : Wiley. - 1461-023X .- 1461-0248. ; 24:6, s. 1215-1224

Related links:: http://pure.iiasa.ac...; show more...; https://gup.ub.gu.se...; https://doi.org/10.1...; https://res.slu.se/i...; show less...

Abstract Subject headings

Trees receive growth-limiting nitrogen from their ectomycorrhizal symbionts, but supplying the fungi with carbon can also cause nitrogen immobilization, which hampers tree growth. We present results from field and greenhouse experiments combined with mathematical modelling, showing that these are not conflicting outcomes. Mycorrhizal networks connect multiple trees, and we modulated C provision by strangling subsets of Pinus sylvestris trees, assuming that carbon supply to fungi was reduced proportionally to the strangled fraction. We conclude that trees gain additional nitrogen at the expense of their neighbours by supplying more carbon to the fungi. But this additional carbon supply aggravates nitrogen limitation via immobilization of the shared fungal biomass. We illustrate the evolutionary underpinnings of this situation by drawing on the analogous tragedy of the commons, where the shared mycorrhizal network is the commons, and explain how rising atmospheric CO2 may lead to greater nitrogen immobilization in the future.

By the author/editor: Henriksson, Nils; Franklin, Oskar; Tarvainen, Lasse ...; Marshall, John; Lundberg-Felten, ...; Eilertsen, Lill; show more...; Näsholm, Torgny; show less...

About the subject

NATURAL SCIENCES: NATURAL SCIENCES; and Earth and Relate ...; and Environmental Sc ...

By the university: University of Gothenburg; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

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