Growth responses of maritime sand dune plant species to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Abstract

In a pot experiment conducted in a greenhouse, the response of 6 plant species dominating in the succession of vegetation of a deflation hollow of the Łeba Bar to inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) was investigated. The inoculum was a mixture of soil, roots and spores of 5 species of AMF with the dominant species <i>Glomus aggregatum</i>. Except for <i>Corynephorus canescens</i> and <i>Festuca rubra</i> subsp. <i>arenaria</i>, both the growth and the dry matter of above-ground parts of plants of <i>Agrostis stolonifera, Ammophila arenaria, Corynephorus canescens, Juncus articulatus</i> and <i>J. balticus</i> inoculated with AMF were higher than those growing in soils lacking infection propagules of these fungi. Inoculation with AMF decreased the dry matter of root: shoot ratios in 5 plant species. This property was not determined in <i>Festuca rubra</i> subsp. <i>arenaria</i> due to the death of all control plants. The level of mycorrhizal infection was low and did not correlate with the growth responses found. The high growth reaction of <i>Juncus</i> spp. to AMF found in this study suggests that the opinion of non-mycotrophy or low dependence of plants of <i>Juncaceae</i> on AMF was based on results of investigations of plants growing in wet sites known to inhibit the formation of mycorrhizae.