Mycorrhizal fungus diversity is an ecosystem health indicator, and thus, the appreciation of the aboveground as well as the belowground biota, such as fungi associated with natural and managed ecosystems, is essential to provide sustainable products and suggestions to farmers. Less is known about the totally arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and fungal endophytes useful to agroecology, which are environment friendly microbial biofertilizers to mitigate the complications of conventional farming. Specific AMF are found in most covers; grassy ecosystems are increasingly investigated through their exclusive fungal species that improve sustainable cultivation. Different grazed pastures, forages, and their diversity are important objects of study either in economic or ecological scope. Based on recent reports, the occurrence of AMF in grasslands and pastures is significant, supporting more diverse AMF than native forests. Therefore, we show current information on these topics. We conducted a Web of Science search of published articles on AMF, pastures, and grasslands and analyzed them. The results confirmed the important role of pH as the driver of AMF diversity distribution between the grassy ecosystems from Argentina and Brazil. In grasslands, the main family represented was Glomeraceae, while pastures maintain predominantly Acaulosporaceae. Brazilian grasslands and pastures presented four times the AMF richness of those from Argentina.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are a key soil functional group, with an important potential to increase crop productivity and sustainable agriculture including food security. However, there is clear evidence that land uses, crop rotations and soil features affect the AMF diversity and their community functioning in many agroecosystems. So far, the information related to AMF biodiversity in ecosystems like the Argentinean Puna, an arid high plateau where plants experience high abiotic stresses, is still scarce. In this work, we investigated morphological and molecular AMF diversity in soils of native corn, bean and native potato Andean crops, under a familiar land use, in Chaupi Rodeo (Jujuy, Argentina), without agrochemical supplements but with different histories of crop rotation. Our results showed that AMF morphological diversity was not only high and variable among the three different crop soils but also complemented by Illumina MiSeq data. The multivariate analyses highlighted that total fungal diversity is significantly affected by the preceding crop plants and the rotation histories, more than from the present crop species, while AMF communities are significantly affected by preceding crop only in combination with the effect of nitrogen and calcium soil concentration. This knowledge will give useful information on appropriate familiar farming.

Rhinella spinulosa is distributed from Peru to Argentina (from 1200 to 5000 m elevation), inhabiting arid mountain valleys of the Andes, characterized by salty soils. The variations in soil salinity, caused by high evapotranspiration of water, can create an osmotic constraint and high thermal oscillations for metamorphsed Andean toad (R. spinulosa), affecting their thermoregulation and extreme thermal tolerances. We investigated the changes in thermal tolerance parameters (critical thermal maximum and crystallization temperature) of a population of metamorphosed R. spinulosa from the Monte Desert of San Juan, Argentina, under different substrate salinity conditions. Our results suggest that the locomotor performance of metamorphs of R. spinulosa is affected by increasing salinity concentrations in the environment where they develop. On the other hand, the thermal extremes of metamorphs of R. spinulosa also showed changes associated with different salinity conditions. According to other studies on different organisms, the increase of the osmolarity of the internal medium may increase the thermal tolerance of this species. More studies are needed to understand the thermo-osmolar adjustments of the metamorphs of toads to environmental variability.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMFs, Glomeromycota) are biotrophic mutualistic symbionts of 80% of terrestrial plants. AMFs increase their hosts’ growth through their contribution to water and nutrient absorption from the soil to the plant roots. The different AMF taxa vary in their edaphic and nutritional preferences, the host species ranges and the seasonal changes in sporulation features. The increase in the world human population and the global demand for natural resources have acted as an important driving force for agricultural changes in Argentina in the last 150 years. Particularly, the Prosopis caldenia Burkart forests (or “Caldenales”) have suffered an important reduction in the last 10 years. Here, we studied AMF abundance and diversity in four land uses and their relationship with soil and vegetation characteristics. The land uses selected were native forest (Caldenales), Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees pasture, Medicago sativa L. cropfield and soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merill) cropfield. AMF spores were extracted from soil by the traditional method and were identified by their morphological features. Cluster analysis divided the land uses into two groups; Kruskal–Wallis tests showed significant differences in AMF abundance and richness between land uses; the AMF abundance and tree richness were negatively correlated, showing less abundance of AMF spores in the plots with the highest richness of tree species. Our results suggest that land use and vegetation richness have a strong influence on the AMF community. Agricultural activities would negatively influence the AMF species diversity but would not negatively affect the spore abundance.