Seedling ectomycorrhization is central to conifer forest restoration: a case study from Kashmir Himalaya

Abstract

Over the past few decades, many countries have attempted to carry out forest landscape restoration over millions of hectares of degraded land. Such efforts, however, have met with limited success because of several factors, including a lack of adequate emphasis on ectomycorrhization of the nursery seedlings. A similar scenario is seen in the Kashmir Himalaya, where the natural regeneration of degraded forests is poor despite ample restoration efforts by forest managers. To overcome this challenge, we identified two promising ectomycorrhizal species, namely Clitocybe nuda and Cortinarius distans, for their use in ectomycorrhization of seedlings of three common conifers, namely Abies pindrow, Cedrus deodara, and Picea smithiana. Laboratory studies were carried out to investigate the requirements for optimum mycelial growth of these ectomycorrhizal fungi. Best ECM mycelial growth was obtained in the basic MMN medium containing glucose as the source of carbon and nitrogen in ammonium form. C. distans showed higher growth than C. nuda across all the treatments and also proved significantly more effective in enhancing the survival and growth of the conifer host plant seedlings. The present study resulted in standardizing the requirements for mass inoculum production of the two mycobionts which could help in successful forest restoration programmes.

Mycorrhization in trees: ecology, physiology, emerging technologies and beyond

“…2019) and even gymnosperms such as Abies pindrow, Cedrus deodara , and Picea smithiana (Assad et al . 2022; Outamamat et al . 2022).…”

“…Similar efforts have been extended to species such as Cupressus atlantica, Acacia holosericea, Ceratonia silique, and Argan trees (Fig. 4; Duponnois et al 2007;Ouahmane et al 2007;Imane et al 2019) and even gymnosperms such as Abies pindrow, Cedrus deodara, and Picea smithiana (Assad et al 2022;Outamamat et al 2022). However, a possible limitation to this approach is the incompatibility between a specific tree species and mycorrhizal fungal species.…”