Arbuscular mycorrhizal status of spring ephemerals in the desert ecosystem of Junggar Basin, China

Abstract

A survey was made of the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) status of 73 spring ephemeral plant species that grow in the desert ecosystem of Junggar Basin, northwest China. The proportion of AM colonization ranged from 7 to 73% with a mean value of 30%. A total of 65 plant species studied were AM with coils/arbuscules or vesicles and the remaining eight species were possibly AM with no coils/arbuscules or vesicles but with fungal mycelia in the root cortex. AM fungal spores were isolated from rhizosphere samples of all 73 plant species and identified. The mean spore density was 22 per 20 ml of air-dried soil, ranging from 0 to 120. Colonization and spore density of perennials were slightly higher than of annuals and varied among different plant families. A total of 603 AM fungal spore (or sporocarp) specimens were isolated belonging to six genera, Acaulospora, Archaeopora, Entrophospora, Glomus, Paraglomus, and Scutellospora; Glomus was the dominant genus. We conclude that spring ephemerals may be highly dependent on AM associations for survival in the very infertile and arid soils of this desert ecosystem.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with tree peony in 3 geographic locations in China

“…The dominance of AMF in tree peony was also in agreement with the observations documented for other horticultural plants in previous studies (Guo et al, 2007;Guo and Liu, 2010;Bechem and Alexander, 2012;Yamato et al, 2012). The occurrence frequency of arbuscules in all cultivars except for HQW in the Xibei cultivar group was lower than that of vesicles, which is in accord with our studies in other plant species or ecosystems (Shi et al, 2006a(Shi et al, , 2006b(Shi et al, , 2007. One possible reason is the characteristic of arbuscules being short-lived, which is related to the absorption and storage of soil nutrients (Shi et al, 2007).…”

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with wild forage plants in typical steppe of eastern Inner Mongolia

“…Members of the Chenopodiaceae showed varied responses in our study, with some mycorrhizal and others not, and some were possibly mycorrhizal. Shi et al [30] studied the AM status of some plant species in the Chenopodiaceae from the Junggar Desert in northwest China, and found only hyphae in the roots, so they were considered to be only possibly AM. One explanation might be the influence of particular soil conditions and vegetation composition.…”

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Improve the Antioxidative Response and the Seed Production of Suaedoideae Species Suaeda physophora Pall Under Salt Stress

“…arbuscules or vesicles (Hirrel et al, 1978;Brundrett, 2002;Smith and Read, 2008). However, a growing number of studies have now found that many Amaranthaceae species can be colonized by AMF in Port Wakefield, South Australia (Aleman and Tiver, 2010), in Simpson Desert, Australia (O'Connor et al, 2001), and in Junggar Basin, China (Shi et al, 2006;Zhang et al, 2012), meanwhile, AMF can improve their growth. For instance, Williams et al (1974) first observed that the growth of Atriplex canescens inoculated with Glomus mosseae increased in sterilized soil.…”