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Monitoring the decline in AM fungus populations and efficacy during a long term bare fallow

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Abstract

Producing nonmycorrhizal plants in the field is a challenge due to the ubiquitous distribution of arbuscular mycorrhizal [AM] fungi and impacts of chemical treatments upon nontarget organisms. A field plot was covered with ground cover fabric to prohibit plant growth and take advantage of the obligate symbiotic nature of AM fungi to selectively starve and remove them from the soil microbiological community. The decline in the AM fungus population was monitored through spore counts and most probable number bioassays. Response to inoculation experiments were conducted to contrast the response of Allium porrum L. to inoculation with in vitro produced spores of Glomus intraradices Schenck and Smith when plants were grown in the AM fungus-depleted soil vs. soil from an adjacent, cropped plot. Data indicated a strongly diminished, yet still viable population of AM fungi after 39 months of bare fallow. Plants grown in cropped soil showed no growth response nor increase in percentage root length colonized as a result of inoculation, while the response to inoculation of plants grown in the covered soil increased as the population of AM fungi declined below 1 propagule cm−3.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank S. Campbell and J. Lee for their technical assistance.

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Author notes

  1. David O. Wilson

    Present address: King’s Agriseeds Inc., 96 Paradise Lane, Ronks, PA, 17572, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA-ARS Eastern Regional Research Center, 600 E. Mermaid Lane, Wyndmoor, PA, 19038, USA

    David D. Douds Jr. & Gerald Nagahashi

  2. The Rodale Institute, 611 Siegfriedale Rd., Kutztown, PA, 19530, USA

    David O. Wilson & Jeff Moyer

Authors
  1. David D. Douds Jr.
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  2. Gerald Nagahashi
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  3. David O. Wilson
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  4. Jeff Moyer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David D. Douds Jr..

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Responsible Editor: Per Ambus.

Mention of a trade or brand name does not imply an endorsement by the US Department of Agriculture over others not mentioned.

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Douds, D.D., Nagahashi, G., Wilson, D.O. et al. Monitoring the decline in AM fungus populations and efficacy during a long term bare fallow. Plant Soil 342, 319–326 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0697-3

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