Abstract
Temperate and boreal forests are increasingly suffering from anthropic degradation. Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) are symbionts with most temperate and boreal forest trees, providing their hosts with soil nutrients and water in exchange for plant carbon. This group of fungi is involved in woody plants’ survival and growth and helps plants tolerate harsh environmental conditions. Here, we describe the current understanding of how EMF can benefit temperate and boreal forest restoration projects. We review current evidence on promising restoration plans that actively use EMF in sites contaminated with heavy metals, affected by soil erosion, and degraded due to clearcut logging and wildfire. We discuss the potential role of this group of fungi for restoring sites invaded by non-native plant species. Additionally, we explore limitations, knowledge gaps, and possible undesired outcomes of the use of EMF in forest restoration, and we suggest how to further incorporate this fungal group into forest management. We conclude that considering EMF – host interactions could improve the chances of success of future restoration programs in boreal and temperate forests.
Highlights
Forest ecosystems are undergoing a process of anthropic degradation globally (DeFries et al, 2010)
We only considered papers that evaluated the role of Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) in restoration programs performed in temperate and boreal forests and used ectomycorrhizal plant hosts, checked for effective EMF colonization of plants’ roots, and considered the use of untreated plants for analyses
A relatively high number of papers addressed the effects of plant invasions on the EMF community, we found no papers directly manipulating the EMF community to achieve forest restoration in invasion contexts
Summary
Forest ecosystems are undergoing a process of anthropic degradation globally (DeFries et al, 2010). The restoration success in heavy metal contaminated sites is conditioned by successional interactions within the EMF species, and their ecological traits (e.g., dispersal, host preference, life history) (Kalucka and Jagodzinski, 2016) As both the plant host and the fungi mutually benefit in the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, the use of plant-EMF pairs for restoration might be more effective than non-mycorrhizal plants or free-living soil microorganisms (Malajczuk et al, 1994; Leyval et al, 1997). Inoculation treatments either with soil from a reference community or with single EMF species - performed both in nurseries or in the field - have worked effectively for re-establishing and increasing the growth of native plants in restoration programs (Dulmer et al, 2014; Henry et al, 2015; Hudon, 2019; Patterson, 2019). EMF can help to promote seedling survival by improving their resistance to stress, a trait that is likely to benefit reforestation programs over fast growth (Jacobs et al, 2015; Box 2)
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