Mycorrhizas in Extreme Environments

Abstract

Plant life in extreme environments is of special importance because it is potentially helpful in understanding of how plants can adapt to these extreme environments. Before discussing extreme environments and the plants that exist in them, it is necessary to be familiar with the types of these environments. Extreme cold environments, hydrothermal vents, sulphuric springs, extremely acidic or alkaline environments and highly saline aquatic and terrestrial systems exemplify major extreme environments on the planet Earth. There have been very few studies conducted so far in the context of mycorrhizas in extreme environments. Since the waves of global change have rendered most of the environments more and more stressful, the biotic interactions that promote stress tolerance and avoidance of plants attain renewed importance. How mycorrhizas can help host plants to withstand increasing droughts, salinity, cold and heat stresses is therefore becoming an interesting discourse. A challenging area for mycorrhizologists would be to understand what kind of morphological and physiological adaptations plant need to undertake to get maximum benefits in order to survive in extreme environments.