The effect of soil disturbance on vesicular—arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soils from different vegetation types

Abstract

SUMMARYThe infectivity of vesicular-arbuscular (VA) mycorrhizal fungi m three soils from different vegetation types was compared before and after disturbance. The relative quantities of infective propagules in the disturbed soils were estimated by an infectivity test after the soils were diluted. Spore numbers and mycorrhizal roots were also quantified in each soil.The mycorrhizal colonization of clover roots in tbe infectivity test was not decreased after soil from an annual pasture had been disturbed. In contrast, in both a forest soil and a heathland soil, the percentage root length colonized of test plants was almost halved if the soils had been disturbed. In the pasture soil up to 10 times or 25 times more propagules survived disturbance than in the forest soil or the beatbland soil respectively. The large number of propagules may allow the VA mycorrbizal fungi in the pasture soil to maintain maximum infectivity after soil disturbance.

Survival of propagules of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soils in eastern Australia used to grow cotton

“…These data support the suggestion investigation (and unpublished), with the aim of that in undisturbed soil AM are commonly initiated finding a fast method of determining viability of from the hyphal network in soil, as is observed in field-collected spores. Of the stains we examined, sandy soils of Australia (southern WA, (Jasper, only tetrazolium red gave consistent results in Abbott & Robson, 1991);SA, (McGee, 1989); the consecutive experiments, but the results were disHawkesbury plateau, NSW, (Bellgard, 1993); the similar to data from bioassays. In the data we Sydney Basin (G. S. Pattinson & P. A. McGee, presented, the possible reasons for the dissimilarity unpublished)).…”

Effects of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Infection and Common Mycelial Network Formation on Invasive Plant Competition

“…There are many beneficial effects of AMF that could be important in the field, such as increased pathogen protection, salt and heavy metal tolerance, and drought resistance, which I would have been unable to see in this controlled experiment because those stressors were not present (Smith et al 2010) Removal of the mycorrhizal community by sterilization increased the growth of Brachypodium sylvaticum, whereas no growth differences were found with the native grass. Enhanced performance of invasives in soil devoid of biota may facilitate invasion in disturbed sites, where AMF abundance is likely lower than in undisturbed soils (Jasper et al 1991). Interestingly, field studies have shown B. sylvaticum to have lower spore abundance and root AMF colonization than native competitor Elymus glaucus, within identical habitats and consistently between multiple sites in Oregon (Caitlin E. Lee, unpublished data).…”

Functioning of mycorrhizal associations along the mutualism–parasitism continuum*

“…Tillage as a morphological species coexist in the same root form of soil disturbance is well known to disrupt system. Strict identification and quantitative meashyphal networks and reduce colonization by arbus-urements of individual species require molecular cular mycorrhizas (Jasper, Abbott & Robson, 1991;probes and biochemical analyses. Molecular approMcGonigle & Miller, 1996).…”