Arbuscular Mycorrhizal
Fungi
These fungi (“AMF”) colonize
roots when spores germinate in the soil and grow toward roots. They establish internal structures that
allow the fungus to get photosynthetic products from the plant for their
growth. In return, external fungal
structures bring nutrients from the soil into the root for the plant’s
nutrition. Most of the tree species
in our project are colonized by AMF.
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Micrographs of AMF
inside roots; fungal tissues stain blue. (A) A root tip of the native
tropical tree Cedrela odorata
colonized by AMF. The spheres are
vesicles, which store photosynthetic products for the fungus. Middle: arbuscule
in a leek root (Division
of Plant Sciences, |
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Five spore types found in soil samples from our study site. The graph shows that the number of different types of AMF spores depends on degree of erosion at each site on the farm. Sites with the greatest erosion are rank 1, at the left of the abscissa. Spore diversity is low in the most eroded soils, ranks 1, 2 and 3 (Carpenter et al. 2001). Low diversity could be a problem for regeneration of many trees if tree species prefer certain AMF types. |