James D. Bever

TL;DR: In this paper, the importance of increasing crop production while reducing resource inputs and land-use change cannot be overstated especially in light of climate change and a human population growth projected to reach nine billion this century.

TL;DR: Interactions between AMF and N2-fixers in communities or Panicum monocultures were not found, indicating that short-term effects of these microbial functional groups are additive.

TL;DR: Effects of mycorrhizal fungi in nature were generally correlated to effects in the growth chamber, suggesting that laboratory data do reflect dynamics between plants and AM fungi in the field, and AM fungal identity appears to influence the growth and reproduction of plants in theField.

TL;DR: Assessment of aggregate stability in paired remnant and post-disturbance grasslands across California, shortgrass and tallgrass prairies, and in manipulative experiments of plant composition and soil microbial inoculation demonstrated that the stability of aggregates was reduced by non-native plants and the degradation of the native soil microbial community.

TL;DR: It is found that latesuccessional species were more responsive, and demonstrated greater specificity, toward individual AM fungal taxa than earlysuccessional species, suggesting that plant response to mycorrhizal fungi is evolutionarily labile and coevolves with plant life history.