Diversity and abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with acacia trees from different land use systems in Ethiopia

Abstract

Root samples and rhizosphere soil of nine acacia species (Acacia abyssinica, Faidherbia albida, A. nilotica, A. senegal, A. seyal, A. sieberiana, A. saligna, A. tortilis and A. robusta) were collected from Bishoftu, Zeway and Addis Ababa sites with different land use types to assess their Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal (AMF) diversity, spore density and root colonization. The percentage of root length colonized by AMF was estimated. Spores, spore clusters and sporocarps extracted from soil samples were counted and morphologically identified to species or specific morphotype. Roots of all acacia species were colonized from low to moderate or relatively high levels by AMF with the occurrence of arbuscules, vesicles and hyphae. Arbuscules were however not detected in roots of A. senegal. The highest AM fungal colonization was found in A. seyal (67.3%) from open grazing field (OGF) at Zeway followed by A. nilotica (44%), whereas the lowest AMF colonization of 12% was recorded in A. saligna at Bishoftu. Rhizosphere soils harbored AMF fungal spores ranging from 3.7 spores g -1 soil in A. nilotica to 15.0 spores g -1 in A. seyal from open grazing field (OGF) at Zeway. A total of 41 AMF species in 14 genera and 7 families of the Glomeromycota were identified. Nine species belonged to Acaulospora, 6 to Funneliformis, 4 each to Gigaspora, Glomus, and Rhizophagus, 3 each to Claroideoglomus, and Scutellospora, 2 each to Racocetra and Diversispora, and 1 each to Entrophospora, Sclerocystis, Paraglomus and Pacispora. Moreover, 2 unidentified morphotypes each of Glomus, and Acaulospora and 1 of Archaeospora were isolated. Based on relative abundance and isolation frequency of spores, C. claroideum, C. etunicatum, C. luteum, F. geosporus and G. aggregatum were the dominant species in the study. The study showed that the acacia species were characterized by relatively high AMF colonization and very high AMF diversity. AMF spore density and AM root colonization in acacia roots were influenced by soil factors such as available P and soil texture.

Mycorrhizal Status of Bokasso (Abbo) Protected Forest and Adjacent Land uses in Wensho District of Sidama Zone, Southern Ethiopia

“…Based on one-way ANOVA, the colonization of different AM structures varied greatly among plant species both within and between land-use types. AMF-colonization levels in agroforestry practices were higher compared to cropland, result supported by previous findings [24]; [25]; [26] in different parts of Ethiopia. Spore abundance was highest in land use with lower intensity (the culturally protected forest) and less abundant in more intense land uses (agroforest and cropland).…”

“…In the agroforestry systems were detected 24 morphospecies. The forest had the highest number of morphospecies (26), and the least morphotypes were found in mono-cropping systems (21). The Shannon diversity index showed ranges from 1.92 in croplands to 2.1 in culturally protected forest and evenness was ranged from 0.33 (the smallest) in cropland, 0.34 in the forest land use and 0.36(the largest) in agroforestry practices, and Simpson's diversity index shows the highest value for cropland (0.0059), agroforestry (0.0046) and the lowest (0.0042) for the culturally protected forest (data not shown).…”

Occurrence and abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in agroforestry systems of Rubavu and Bugesera Districts in Rwanda

“…However, in this study, the influence of P was not recorded. In their study, Zerihun et al (2013) showed a significant negative correlation between AMF spore density and available P. These findings were similar to some reports from India and Northern Europe (Udaiyan et al, 1996;Kahiluoto et al, 2001). In contrast to this, Muleta et al (2007) observed a positive relationship between spore number and available P in soil samples from natural coffee forest in Ethiopia.…”

Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Two-way Pretreated Sawdust of <i>Eucalyptus globulus</i> and <i>Cupressus lusitanica</i>

“…Different authors reported different findings from Ethiopian fungi (Alemu, 2013;Belay et al, 2013;Bitew, 2010;Gebregiorgis, 2015;Hailu et al, 2012;Megersa et al, 2017c;Sahile et al, 2011;Teklebirhan & Bitew, 2015;Yenealem et al, 2013). But there is no effort has been done to produce sugars from lignocellulosic wastes through fungal enzymes except characterizing the enzymes from wood rot fungi Megersa & Gure, 2018;Megersa et al, 2017aMegersa et al, , 2017b.…”