Effect of agricultural management practices on diversity, abundance, and infectivity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: a review

Food security requires intensive and high agricultural inputs which are unsustainable given their impacts on plant-associated microbiome, especially the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). The significance of AMF in ecosystems and their positive effects on plants are indisputable and they were well studied and discussed, but the importance of AMF diversity and abundance for plants are less tenable. On the other hand, the variability in AMF diversity and abundance due to some agricultural practices may have different impacts on plants, and could affect plant growth and productivity. Therefore, understanding the impacts of the agricultural management practices on AMF diversity and abundance as well as roots colonization would help researchers and agronomic scientific community to develop approaches ensuring the establishment of a good symbiosis and could contribute to the identification and the success of sustainable management options. In this review, we discussed the importance of diversity, abundance and infectivity of AMF for plants and the effect of four agricultural management practices namely the inoculation of plants with AMF, the cropping systems, the fertilization, and the tillage on AMF diversity and abundance in relation with the crops’ productivity.