Influence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation on 1-2mm soil water stable aggregates in split root system

A split root device experiment was used to investigate the influence of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi inoculation on 1-2 mm soil water stability aggregates (WSA1-2mm) in the neutral purple soil while white clover (Trifolium repens) as the host plants. The results show that compared with the non-mycorrhial treatment, the contents of organic matter and glomalin related soil protein (GRSP) of mycorrhizal soil are slightly increased under the inoculation with Glomus intraradices, G. mosseae and G. etunicatum, while the WSA1-2mm contents of mycorrhizal soil are significantly increased. The results of path analysis indicate that the hyphae density has a high direct effect on WSA1-2mm(direct path coefficient is 0.678), GRSP has both direct and indirect effect, but through direct effect mainly. The different mechanism of these factors may account for the difference.