Impact of tillage system on arbuscular mycorrhiza fungal communities in the soil under Mediterranean conditions

A more diverse arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungal community should be more versatile and resilient to variation in environmental conditions over space and time. To evaluate the effect of no-till and conventional tillage systems, AM fungal diversity was assessed as part of a long term field experiment by sequencing of DNA, extracted from soil, that encoded the large ribosomal sub-unit and was obtained by nested-PCR. In comparison with no-till, conventional tillage decreased AM fungal diversity by 40%. Differences between treatments in the frequency of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) present in soil, confirm that AM fungi are differently vulnerable to soil disturbance.