ABSTRACT

The bene›ts that host plants gain from the AM interaction depend on the identities of both plants and AM fungi involved. There is evidence that AM fungal species and isolates can differ in terms of bene›ts provided to the host (Munkvold et  al. 2004). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi potentially have a large impact on the competitive interactions between plant species (Facelli et al. 2010; Moora and Zobel 2010). However, meta-analysis of various studies has shown that analysis of such bene›ts is incredibly complex and involves a multitude of biotic and abiotic factors (Hoeksema et al. 2010). Thus, it has been proposed that diversity of AM fungal communities may be a major driver of the dynamics of terrestrial plant communities (van der Heijden and Cornelissen 2002; Bever et al. 2010; Klironomos et al. 2011; Zobel and Öpik 2014).