Chinese researchers find that similar plants can gain a big competitive advantage by partnering with the right fungi.
Tag - Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
Alun Salt
Global climate change and grasslands: soil microbial diversity to the rescue!
New study the journal New Phytologist reveals the importance of soil microbial diversity for tolerating or recovering from drought, warming and nitrogen deposition.
Juniper Kiss
Restoring “No Man’s Land” with native mycorrhizal fungi and plant seed mixtures
A new study in the Journal of Applied Ecology reveals the importance of introducing symbiotic fungi with native plant species for restoring post-mining ecosystems.
Feeding (or not feeding) a fungus: plants may not be so good to their fungal partners after all
Interactions between plants and fungal symbionts are not always balanced affairs.
Liam Elliott
How arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi talk to plants before colonisation
Plant roots do not sit alone in the soil. In the earth you will also find various microbes. Lurking in the dirt is Rhizophagus irregularis, an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus that colonises wheat. In a new study Hui Tian...
Thismia and its unusual number of specialist relationships.
Plants sometimes specialise. Catering for a specific partner can ensure a reliable source of food or pollination. At the same time, relying on that partner limits your adaptability. A new study by Guo and colleagues, A...
Plants and Fungi: An ancient partnership
Why are we interested in fungi here? Partly because if you're interested in plants, you'll find fungi everywhere.
Ecology of Floristic Quality Assessment: testing for correlations between coefficients of conservatism, species traits and mycorrhizal responsiveness
Many plant species are limited to habitats relatively unaffected by anthropogenic disturbance, so protecting these undisturbed habitats is essential for plant conservation. Coefficients of conservatism (C values) are...
William Salter
Genetic diversity and evolution of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in Arachnitis uniflora
Arachnitis uniflora is a mycoheterotrophic plant that obtains nutrients via arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi of neighbouring autrotrophic plants. Some mycoheterotrophic plants have the ability to associate with more than...
botanyone
Soil N not microbes favours an exotic plant over natives
The resilience of plant communities to invasion by exotic species may depend on the extent to which native and exotic plant performance are mediated by abiotic and biotic components of the soil. In a recent study...
AoBPLANTS
Composition of fungal soil communities varies with plant abundance and geographic origin
Interactions of belowground fungal communities with exotic and native plant species may be important drivers of plant community structure in invaded grasslands. However, field surveys linking plant community structure...
AM fungi and P acquisition by hemiparasitic Pedicularis
A study of Pedicularis rex and P. tricolor finds that AM colonization is low, and less than 1 % of total plant P is taken up from the soil via the AM fungus.
Fungal suppression of haustoria in a hemiparasite
Most parasitic plants do not form mycorrhizal associations, so direct interactions between them and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi have rarely been studied. Using a facultative root hemiparasite, Pedicularis...
Mycorrhizae, plant allometry and biomass–density relationships
Mycorrhizae, plant allometry and biomass–density relationships Plant biomass–density relationships during self-thinning are determined mainly by allometry, but may potentially be influenced by the presence of arbuscular...
