Arbuscular mycorrhizas and ecosystem restoration

Abstract

Human unreasonable activities have led to a series of environmental problems, including ecological imbalance and ecological degradation, resulting in the decay or loss of the service function of ecosystems and the reduction of biodiversity and soil productivity. Ecosystem restoration using pioneer plants and beneficial microorganisms is considered to be necessary and useful and has achieved great progress in recent years. Arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) are ubiquitous symbiotic associations formed between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and more than 90% of surveyed higher plants in terrestrial ecosystems, including fragile and degraded environments. It's well known that AMF improve acquisition of mineral nutrients (notably P) of host plants, contribute to processes associated with soil aggregation, and help to maintain plant community stability and productivity and ecosystem functioning. AMF can also benefit host plants' growth via alleviating various environmental stresses, such as heavy metals, drought, salinity, and soil compaction, allowing some plants to grow in adverse conditions. Hence, AMF may play potential roles in ecosystem restoration at different scales. In this chapter, AMF improvements in plant nutrition and growth, plant resistance, soil structure, and ecosystem processes and the related mechanisms employed by AMF are briefly discussed. The current status of using AMF in ecosystem restoration of mine soils/ spoils, desertified areas, salt-affected soils, and degraded grasslands is comprehensively summarized. The future prospects regarding selecting efficient AMF-plants associations and enhancing AMF-assisted restoration are discussed.