ADAPTATION OF VESICULAR‐ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAE TO EDAPHIC FACTORS

Abstract

In three field soils, birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.) transplants infected with mycorrhizal fungi from 42 soils showed no clear superiority of strains from these individual soils after a year's growth. Differences among strains decreased with time and were only significant for all three soils at the first cutting. There were low‐level correlations between yield and various chemical properties of the soils from which the cultures were derived. In the greenhouse, with sterilized soils low in P, trefoil yield was always greatest when the inoculum used was indigenous to the soil in which the plants were grown as compared to inocula from five different soils. These results suggest that indigenous strains of mycorrhizal fungi may possess an adaptation to edaphic factors and that the performance and persistence of strains otherwise more efficient in nutrient uptake may be limited by their lack of adaptation. Copyright © 1980, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved