21EJP SOIL: SymbiOtIc soLutions for HEalthy Agricultural Landscapes (SOIL HEAL)

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The overall goal of SOIL-HEAL is to realise the potential of symbiotic soil fungi for sustainable agriculture, thereby addressing a key aim of the EJP Soil call to foster holistic and sustainable agricultural soil management practices. Most plants have coevolved with soil fungi to form root-fungal ("mycorrhizal") symbioses that are critical for regulating numerous ecosystem functions and services in natural and agricultural settings. An important feature of mycorrhizal fungi is their ability to form 'networks', which (in the broad sense) comprise three distinct elements: extra-radical mycelium, common mycorrhizal networks (CMNs), where a fungus links two or more plants, and community-level 'interaction networks' between and among mycorrhizal plant and fungal species. Despite the potential huge importance of mycorrhizal symbioses in agriculture, our understanding of the ubiquity and function of mycorrhizal fungal networks and their contribution to resilience of agri-ecosystems is remarkably poor. This is especially true under 'real-world' field conditions and in response to common management interventions used by farmers and land managers. To realise the potential of AM fungi for sustainable agriculture, SOIL-HEAL seeks to advance our mechanistic understanding of all three elements of fungal networks by determining:i) the properties of interaction networks of plants and fungi; ii) the production and turnover of extra-radical mycelium; iii) the relationships between fungal networks and key ecosystem functions, such as greenhouse gas production; iv) how management interventions influence the extent and function of fungal networks;v) whether fungal networks enhance the resilience of agri-ecosystems to climate extremes, especially drought, which is expected to increase in frequency and intensity with climate change.