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Trees are dependent on the activity of soil microorganisms, including mutualistic ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi and soil-dwelling bacteria, for access to phosphorus (P). While P is a key limiting nutrient in temperate and other forest ecosystems, our understanding of the contributions of ECM fungi to plant P nutrition and cycling are unclear. Further complicating our understanding of these processes are the combined effects of fungal species and future climate scenarios and soil nutrient availability.

In this study we characterised how the ECM fungi Pisolithus albus and Pisolithus microcarpus influenced the amount of plant-available P in soils and plant P content of Eucalyptus grandis. We explored how these fungi influence P cycling by studying their relative P-solubilising and P-mineralising abilities and examining their impact on P cycling gene abundance in the soil bacterial community. These were investigated under …