Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi community in soils under desertification and restoration in the Brazilian semiarid

Soil desertification has a significant social, economic, and environmental impact worldwide. Mycorrhizal diversity remains poorly understood in semiarid regions impacted by desertification, especially in Brazilian drylands. More importantly, positive impacts of grazing exclusion on mycorrhizal communities are still incipient. Here, we hypothesized that overgrazing changes the structure of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) community compared to native areas and, grazing exclusion is effective to restore the AMF community. Thus, we analyzed the status of AMF community in soils under desertification (overgrazing) and restoration (twenty-years of grazing exclusion) in the Brazilian semiarid. AMF-spores were extracted via humid decantation methodology, morphologically classified, and alpha diversity metrics were calculated. Soil samples were chemically, and physically characterized and multivariate statistical analyses were applied to verify the impact of soil degradation and restoration on AMF-community. Briefly, native, and restored areas presented higher contents of organic matter, phosphorus, microbial carbon, and β-glucosidase activity. However, degraded soil showed higher Al³⁺, Na⁺, and bulk soil density values. The abundance of AMF spores was higher in restored soil, followed by degraded and native vegetation, and Shannon’s diversity index was significantly higher in restored soils, followed by native vegetation. AMF-spores were classified into four families (Gigasporaceae > Acaulosporaceae > Glomeraceae > Ambisporaceae). Ambisporaceae was closed correlated with degraded soil, mainly with Al³⁺, Na⁺, and bulk soil density properties. On the other hand, Acaulosporaceae and Glomeraceae were positively correlated with native vegetation and restored soil, respectively, thereby improving Shannon index, richness, enzyme activity, and soil respiration. Thus, grazing exclusion, in long term, can be a good strategy to restore AMF-diversity in soils in the Brazilian semiarid.