Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi enhance the drought resistance more significantly of the late‐successional psammophytes than that of the early ones.

Improving drought tolerance of psammophytes is a challenge for vegetation restoration in arid lands. Despite extensive reports on the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on plant resistance, its enhancements of drought resistance for psammophytes from different successions stages have been rarely explored. Here, seedlings of the Artemisia wudanica (early succession), Hedysarum fruticosum (middle succession), and the Caragana korshinskii (late succession) were selected to investigate the effect of AMF on the growth of psammophytes in different successional stages. We found that the mycorrhizal colonization of late‐successional psammophytes with the AMF was greater than that of the early and mid‐successional psammophytes. The effect of AMF on drought resistance was stronger in late‐successional psammophytes and the promotion effect increased with the intensity of drought. The AMF reduced the difference between aboveground and belowground plant growth and promoted more belowground growth of psammophytes in the late‐successional stage. We concluded that AMF can enhance the drought resistance of psammophytes and has a more significant effect on the growth of plants from the late‐successional stage. This study highlighted the importance of AMF for psammophytes, providing a new approach to improving the growth of psammophytes under drought circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]