Methods to study the role of ectomycorrhizal fungi in forest carbon cycling 1: Introduction to the direct methods to quantify the fungal content in ectomycorrhizal fine roots

Abstract

In terrestrial ecosystems, mycorrhizal fungi are considered to have important role on carbon cycling and its biomass has been studied to quantify their role. We noted why mycorrhizal fungi are important on carbon cycling and focused one of the key factors to asses how much mycorrhizal fungi contribute on the forest carbon cycling, i.e., the biomass of mycorrhizal fungi in ectomycorrhizal fine roots. Three direct methods to quantify the ectomycorrhizal fungi in ectomycorrhizal fine roots were introduced. In the pioneer studies, the value 40% was used as a fungal content in ectomycorrhizal fine roots in many types of forests. However, recent studies showed that the value 40% was not always suitable in various types of forest. Through this report, we emphasize the importance of the further data accumulations in this study field that would lead more precise estimation of forest carbon cycling.