Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are a double-edged sword in plant invasion controlled by phosphorus concentration

The invasion success of some exotic plants depends on associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, which range along a continuum from strong mutualism to parasitism frequently affected by soil phosphorus (P) availability. It is unclear how P availability shifts AM associations on native and invasive plants, which in turn influence their competition. In this work, we conducted a three-factor common garden experiment, including manipulations of P availability, AM fungi occurrence and interspecific competition to evaluate how AM fungi influence competition between two pairs of invasive and native plants under different P availabilities.