Mycorrhizal Fungi to Alleviate Compaction Stress on Plant Growth

Abstract

Plants are subjected to different kinds of stress such as salinity, drought, heavy metals, and compaction. Different methods have been used to alleviate the stress of compaction including the nonbiological ones. However, because such methods are laborious and expensive, the use of biological methods such as using arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi has also been tested. AM fungi are the soil fungi, which are able to establish a symbiotic association with their host plant and significantly increase its growth by enhancing the uptake of water and nutrients. The use of mycorrhizal fungi has been tested under different types of stress and been proved to be effective. However, data related to the use of AM fungi under compaction are little. Due to the unfavorable properties of soil as a result of using agricultural machinery, especially at high moisture, the soil properties will be unfavorable to the growth and activity of microbes and plant under compaction. It has been indicated that mycorrhizal fungi are able to alleviate the stress of compaction on the growth of the host plant, by increasing the uptake of water and nutrients. The extensive hyphal network, resulted by the growth of fungal spores, can significantly increase plant potential to absorb water and nutrients under stress. Some of the latest development in the use of mycorrhizal fungi on the alleviation of compaction have been presented and anlayzed.