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The socio-economic values of fertile and carbon-rich Dark Earth soils are well described from the Amazon region. Very recently, Dark Earth soils were also identified in tropical West Africa, with comparable beneficial soil properties and plant growth-promoting effects. The impact of this management technique on soil microbial communities, however, is less well understood, especially with respect to the ecologically relevant group of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Thus, we tested the hypotheses that (1) improved soil quality in African Dark Earth (AfDE) will increase soil microbial biomass and shift community composition and (2) concurrently increased nutrient availability will negatively affect AM fungal communities. Microbial communities were distinct in AfDE in comparison to adjacent sites, with an increased fungal:bacterial ratio of 71%, a pattern mainly related to shifts in pH. AM fungal abundance and diversity, however, did not differ despite clearly increased soil fertility in AfDE, with 3.7 and 1.7 times greater extractable P and total N content, respectively. The absence of detrimental effects on AM fungi, often seen following applications of inorganic fertilizers, and the enhanced role of saprobic fungi relevant for mineralization and C sequestration support previous assertions of this management type as a sustainable alternative agricultural practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Fine roots and mycorrhiza often represent the largest input of carbon (C) into soils and are therefore of primary relevance to the soil C balance. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi have previously been found to increase litter decomposition which may lead to reduced soil C stocks, but these studies have focused on immediate decomposition of relatively high amounts of high-quality litter and may therefore not hold in many ecological settings over longer terms. 2. Here, we assessed the effect of mycorrhizal fungi on the fate of C and nitrogen (N) contained within a realistic amount of highly 13C-/15N-labelled root litter in soil. This litter was either added fresh or after a 3-month incubation period under field conditions to a hyphal in-growth core where mycorrhizal abundance was either reduced or not through rotation. After 3 months of incubation with a plant under glasshouse conditions, the effect of turning cores on residual 13C and 15N inside the cores was measured, as well as 13C incorporation in microbial signature fatty acids and 15N incorporation of plants. 3. Turning of cores increased the abundance of fungal decomposers and 13C loss from cores, while 15N content of cores and plants was unaffected. Despite the difference in disturbance that turning the cores could have caused, the results suggest that mycorrhizal fungi and field incubation of litter acted to additively increase the proportion of 13C left in cores. 4. Synthesis. Apart from stimulating litter decomposition as previously shown, mycorrhizas can also stabilize C during litter decomposition and this effect is persistent through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]