Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi protect native woody species from novel weapons

Background and aims Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play important roles in plant community structure and ecosystem functioning. The allelopathic disruption of arbuscular mycorrhizal mutualism is a potentially powerful mechanism by which non-native species can negatively impact native plant diversity. However, there is limited understanding of this mechanism on woody species in forest ecosystems. In this study, we carried out a set of experiments to explore the allelopathy of Eucalyptus urophylla on mycorrhizal mutualists.