Unearthing mycorrhizal diversity across a degradation gradient in the western shortgrass prairies

Jonathan Henn
Jonathan Henn
Western Shortgrass Prairie
Cohort:
2024
project abstract

Grassland restoration is a growing practice throughout the world but we are rarely able to achieve plant community structure and diversity that mimic old growth grasslands. In fact, identifying and defining old growth grasslands is under debate. An ancient soil structure that hosts diverse microbial and fungal communities may be a hallmark of old growth grasslands which host high plant diversity and complex structure. The homogenization of soil structure may be one important limitation to grassland restoration because the simplified underground environment may not host a diverse belowground community and many “high quality” grassland plants rely on specialized mycorrhizal interactions more so than widespread weedy species. By better understanding how mycorrhizal diversity varies across remnant, agricultural, and restored grasslands, we will be able to understand whether old growth grasslands have unique belowground communities and whether restoration can increase soil community diversity and to what extent this relates to plant species diversity. This will aid in identifying old growth grasslands in places where management history is uncertain, providing evidence to back conservation of high quality ecosystems. These results could also guide decisions around potential soil inoculation throughout the restoration process to help build diverse soil communities.