Spatiotemporal differences in the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi communities in soil and roots in response to long-term organic compost inputs in an intensive agricultural cropping system on the North China Plain

Purpose Fertilizer management is important for minimizing nutrient losses from intensive agroecosystems. An increasing amount of organic fertilizer has been applied to overcome the problems associated with mineral fertilizers. Thus, an understanding of the diversity and community structure changes in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in response to long-term organic fertilizer management can be potentially significant in the development of nutrient management strategies.