Cover Crops As Tools: How Soil Fungal Communities Can Be Prepared For Successful Prairie Restoration

Inman E. Page Library, Lionel Newsom Café

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have major impact on plant survival, growth and plant community structure. Current land management practices utilize tilled corn-soybean rotations prior to restoration to control exotic weeds. Here, we investigate whether incorporating no-till practices and different cover crop combinations prior to prairie planting provide a more robust prairie restoration. Measuring fungal community changes occurring in old and conventional fields in comparison to a remnant prairie, we found that community composition of all fields was distinct. AMF richness differed among fields, but diversity did not. We will continue to monitor fungal community composition annually, measuring how cover crop treatments change soil biota.