The interaction of heavy metals and nutrients present in soil and native plants with arbuscular mycorrhizae on the riverside in the Matanza-Riachuelo River Basin (Argentina).

This study assessed the contamination by heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn), and nutrients (N, P) in soils and native plants, and the effect of the concentration of those elements with the density of arbuscular-mycorrhizal (AM) spores in soil and colonization in roots from the riverside of the Matanza-Riachuelo River Basin (MRRB). The concentration of metals and nutrients in soils and plants (Eleocharis montana, Cyperus eragrostis, Hydrocotyle bonariensis) increased from the upper sites (8 km from headwaters) to the lower sites (6 km from the mouth of the Riachuelo River) of the basin. AM-colonization on the roots of H. bonariensis and spore density in soil decreased as the concentrations of metals in soil and plant tissues increased from the upper to lower sites of the basin within a consistent gradient of contamination associated with land use, soil disturbance, population, and chemicals discharged into the streams and rivers along the MRRB. The general trends for all metals in plant tissue were to have highest concentrations in roots, then in rhizomes and lowest in aerial biomass. The translocation (TF) and bioconcentration (BCF) factors decreased in plants which grow from the upper sites to the lower sites of the basin. The plants tolerated a wide range in type and quantity of contamination along the basin by concentrating more metals and nutrients in roots than in aboveground tissue. The AM spore density in soil and colonization in roots of H. bonariensis decreased with the increase of the degree of contamination (Dc) in soil.

Relationships among soil properties, plant nutrition and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi-plant symbioses in a temperate grassland along hydrologic, saline and sodic gradients.

Temporal variations in the relationships among plant nutrient concentrations, soil properties and arbuscular-mycorrhizal (AM) fungal dynamics were studied along a topographic and saline gradient in a temperate grassland soil. Soil and plant (Lotus tenuis, Paspalum vaginatum, Stenotaphrum secundatum) samples were collected on four seasonally based occasions. The morphology of AM root colonization had a similar pattern in the plants studied. Maximum arbuscular colonization occurred at the beginning of the growing season in late winter and was minimal in late summer, but maximal vesicular colonization occurred in summer and was minimal in winter, suggesting a preferential production of these morphological phases by the fungus with respect to season. The greatest arbuscular colonization was associated with the highest N and P concentrations in plant tissue, suggesting a correspondence with increases in the rate of nutrient transfer between the symbiotic partners. Water content, salinity and sodicity in soil were positively associated with AM root colonization and arbuscule colonization in L. tenuis, but negatively so in the grasses. There were distinct seasonally related effects with respect to both spore density and AM colonization, which were independent of particular combinations of plant species and soil sites.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plant symbiosis in a saline-sodic soil.

The seasonality of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi-plant symbiosis in Lotus glaber Mill. and Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) O.K. and the association with phosphorus (P) plant nutrition were studied in a saline-sodic soil at the four seasons during a year. Plant roots of both species were densely colonized by AM fungi (90 and 73%, respectively in L. glaber and S. secundatum) at high values of soil pH (9.2) and exchangeable sodium percentage (65%). The percentage of colonized root length differed between species and showed seasonality. The morphology of root colonization had a similar pattern in both species. The arbuscular colonization fraction increased at the beginning of the growing season and was positively associated with increased P concentration in both shoot and root tissue. The vesicular colonization fraction was high in summer when plants suffer from stress imposed by high temperatures and drought periods, and negatively associated with P in plant tissue. Spore and hyphal densities in soil were not associated with AM root colonization and did not show seasonality. Our results suggest that AM fungi can survive and colonize L. glaber and S. secundatum roots adapted to extreme saline-sodic soil condition. The symbiosis responds to seasonality and P uptake by the host altering the morphology of root colonization.