TY - EJOU AU - Vázquez-Santos, Yasmin AU - Martínez-Orea, Yuriana AU - Álvarez-Sánchez, Javier AU - Montaño, Noé Manuel AU - Camargo-Ricalde, Sara Lucía AU - Castillo-Argüero, Silvia TI - Interaction of Acaena elongata L. with Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi under Phosphorus Limitation Conditions in a Temperate Forest T2 - Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany PY - 2021 VL - 90 IS - 2 SN - 1851-5657 AB - The aim of this study was to analyze the performance of Acaena elongata colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to different phosphorus (P) concentrations, as a measure of AMF dependency. A. elongata, is a species from soils where P availability is limited, such as temperate forests. Our research questions were: 1) How do different P concentrations affect the AMF association in Acaena elongata, and 2) How does the AMF association influence A. elongata’s growth under different P concentrations? A. elongata’s growth, P content in plant tissue, AMF colonization and dependency were measured under four P concentrations: control (0 g P kg−1 ), low (0.05 g P kg−1 ), intermediate (0.2 g P kg−1 ) and high (2 g P kg−1 ) in different harvests. A complete randomized block design was applied. A. elongata’s growth was higher under -AMF in intermediate and high P concentrations, and the lowest growth corresponded to +AMF in the low and intermediate P concentration. We observed a negative effect on the root biomass under +AMF in intermediate P concentration, while the P concentration had a positive effect on the leaf area ratio. The AMF colonization in A. elongata decreased in the highest P concentration and it was favored under intermediate P concentration; while the low and the high concentrations generated a cost-benefit imbalance. Our results suggest that the performance of some plant species in soils with low P availability may not be favored by their association with AMF, but a synergy between AMF and intermediate P concentrations might drive A. elongata’s growth. KW - Abies religiosa forest; arbuscular mycorrhizae; plant growth; soil fertilization DO - 10.32604/phyton.2021.014208