Greenhouse inoculation of psammophilic plant species with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to improve survival and early growth.

摘要

Psammophilic plants are characterized for their adaptability to the hard environmental conditions of the coastal sand dune habitats that limit the survival of most vegetation. Considering that mycorrhizal plants are known to be effective colonizers of degraded habitats, the influence of the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis in plant growth was studied in fifteen psammophilic plant species: Lotus creticus, Dorycnium pentaphyllum, Otanthus maritimus, Thymbra capitata, Armeria maritima, Halimium halimifolium, Ononis natrix, Medicago marina, Genista umbellata, Crucinella maritima, Elymus farctus, Ammophila arenaria, Pancratium maritimum, Glaucium flavum and Limoniastrum monopetalum. Wild seeds were used in this study to compare the effect of plant inoculation with a consortium of native AM fungi isolated from a coastal sand dune and with the selected isolate Glomus intraradices BEG 72 versus non mycorrhizal plants. After six months growth, we found that eleven of the fifteen psammophilic species responded positively to AM fungi inoculation and both root and shoot development benefited considerably from the presence of the AM fungi. We can conclude that many of the psammophilic species produced after the germination of the wild seeds collected in their natural habitats show limited growth due in part to the lack of adequate AM fungal inoculum in the plants growing substrate. AM inoculation seems to be critical for their survival.Digital Object Identifier http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejsobi.2011.02.001