Carbon allocation to ectomycorrhizal roots and mycelium colonising different mineral substrates

Abstract

Ectomycorrhizal fungi occur abundantly in the mineral horizons of forest soils, but their interactions with mineral substrates are largely unknown. We have examined the proliferation of ectomycorrhizal roots and mycelium colonising different mineral substrates. By exposing the shoots of Pinus sylvestris seedlings to air containing (CO2)-C-14, the carbon allocation patterns in intact ectomycorrhizal associations could be monitored using electronic auto radiography. In plants colonised by either Hebeloma crustuliniforme or Piloderma fallax, a larger fraction of the photosynthetically derived carbon was allocated to a mineral soil substrate compared with a Sphagnum peat. In mycorrhizal seedlings colonised by H. crustuliniforme, carbon allocation was significantly greater to roots and mycelia colonising patches of pure potassium feldspar than to those in patches of quartz. These results suggest that ectomycorrhizal mycelia may respond to the presence of different mineral substrates by regulating their growth and activity

Keywords

Ectomycorrhiza; E horizon mineral soil; Electronic autoradiography; Hebeloma crustuliniforme; Potassium feldspar; Piloderma fallax; Quartz

Published in

New Phytologist
2004, volume: 162, number: 3, pages: 795-802
Publisher: BLACKWELL PUBLISHING LTD

SLU Authors

• Rosling, Anna

  • Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Finlay, Roger

  • Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Lindahl, Björn

  • Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences and Nature Conservation

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2004.01080.x

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/4134