Arbuscular mycorrhizal status of plants and the spore density of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the tropical rain forest of Xishuangbanna, southwest China

Abstract

The arbuscular mycorrhizal status of 112 plant species and the spore density of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in the rhizosphere soil of these plants in the tropical rain forest of Xishuangbanna, southwest China, were surveyed. It was found that 56% of the surveyed species were arbuscular mycorrhizal, 31% were possibly arbuscular mycorrhizal and 13% were non-mycorrhizal. The spore density of AMF ranged from 55 to 1,908 per 100 g soil, with an average of 476. The rhizosphere soil from the arbuscular mycorrhizal plants did not always have a higher AMF spore density than that from the possibly mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plants. The clumped distribution of AMF spores and the complex structure of the underground component of the tropical rain forest may be two important factors that affected the spore density of AMF. Fungi belonging to the genera Acaulospora and Glomus are the dominant AMF in the soil of the tropical rain forest of Xishuangbanna.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with the Meliaceae on Hainan island, China

“…This is in agreement with the observations made on other tropical forest tree species (Janos 1980;Högberg 1982;Sieverding 1991;Moyersoen et al 1998;Andrade et al 2000;Breuninger et al 2000;Zhao et al 2001;Muthukumar et al 2003;Wubeta et al 2003). Arbuscular mycorrhizal structures were observed in most of the plant species sampled in our survey.…”

“…There were significant differences in the species richness and spore density of the AM fungi in the rhizopheres of the plants on Hainan island. Values for spore density are broadly in accord with the results of Zhao et al (2001), which were high compared with those of Wubeta et al (2003). The richness values were relatively high and varied with host plant species, but not in relation to soil properties.…”

“…In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the arbuscular mycorrhizae of tropical rain forest plants (Guadarrama and Alvarez-Sanchez 1999;Muthukumar et al 2003;Tawaraya et al 2003;Zhao 2000;Zhao et al 2001). However, according to Brundrett et al (1995) and Wubeta et al (2003), apart from a few fragmented reports, there have been no investigations reported on arbuscular mycorrhizae of the family Meliaceae.…”

Twenty years of research on community composition and species distribution of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in China: a review

“…Some 120 agricultural plant species, including grain, oil, and economic crops and horticultural and Chinese medicinal plants, have been found to form associations with AMF (Table 1). In addition, wild plants inhabiting a range of environments, such as heathland, mountain areas, grasslands, woodlands, and tropical forests, were also surveyed (Gong et al 1997;Gai et al 2000a;Zhao 2000;Chen et al 2001;Zhao et al 2001bZhao et al , 2003Wang and Liu 2002;Muthukumar et al 2003;Bao and Yan 2004;Ding et al 2004). Mycorrhizal incidence among wild herbaceous plants is consistently high, with over 90% of the species examined (about 300) exhibiting AMF colonization, and AM associations also occur in trees and shrubs of certain climatic zones.…”

“…Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are ubiquitously associated with the large majority of plant families in different ecosystems across the world ranging from the tropics (Janos 1980;Zhao et al 2001b) or arctic-alpine habitats (Haselwandter and Read 1980;Haselwandter 1987) to mesic (Rickerl et al 1994;Ingham and Wilson 1999;Muthukumar and Udaiyan 2000) and arid habitats (Barrow et al 1997;Stutz et al 2000;O'Connor et al 2002). China embraces a large diversity of climatic conditions and soil types, resulting in a wide range of ecosystems and vegetation structure.…”