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Instituto de Botánica Spegazzini, Avenida 53 Nu. 477, 1900 La Plata, Argentina
| ABSTRACT |
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We investigated the influence of tilling, N fertilization and crop stage on arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) fungal species diversity in a wheat monoculture in the Pampa region of Argentina. Glomalean spores were isolated by wet sieving and decanting from conventionally tilled and nontilled soils cropped with wheat with or without N fertilization, at three phenological stages of the crop (tilling, flowering and grain filling) and fallow. Morphological characterization yielded at least 24 AM fungi taxa in the field samples, belonging to six genera of AMF: Acaulospora Archaeospora, Entrophospora, Gigaspora, Glomus and Scutellospora. Tilling and fertilization treatments did not result in decreased spore biodiversity. Wheat phenology influenced AM communities, with highest spore biodiversity during grain filling.
Key words: AMF, biodiversity, conventional tillage, Glomeromycota, no-tillage, wheat phenological stages
| INTRODUCTION |
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Agricultural practices such as tillage and fertilization can affect the structure of AMF communities; tilling can reduce either AMF spore density (Kabir et al 1998
) or AMF colonization of crops (McGonigle et al 1990
). The soil environment, plant physiological conditions and mycorrhizae can be greatly changed through different tillage or fertilization systems. Sieverding (1991)
found that in agroecosystems with monocultures, conventional tillage, high application of soluble phosphate, nitrogen and pesticides the number of fungal species decreases more than 50% in comparison to native ecosystems. No-tillage systems often are characterized by the accumulation of crop residues on the soil surface, leading to greater carbon, nitrogen and surface water compared to conventional tillage (Doran and Linn 1994
). We hypothesize that changes in soil management can make crop species almost independent of AM fungi or eliminate certain AM fungal species because: (i) they do not tolerate the new edaphic conditions; (ii) they are not able to infect the host plant under these conditions; or (iii) they are not able to compete with other AMF fungal species that have become dominant due to the new growth conditions (Sieverding 1991
). Kurle and Pfleger (1994)
hypothesized that when more intensive tillage systems are used, resulting in greater soil disturbance, it is likely that AM fungal species, which sporulate more heavily, would be favored. Species that are more dependent on the mycelial network and on hyphal remnants in root fragments for carry-over would be at a relative disadvantage because of disruption of the network and accelerated decomposition of roots.
Mycorrhizal communities are site specific and each AMF species can be affected in several ways by different agricultural management practices, so generalization is difficult. The effect of fertilizers on AMF diversity has been studied in different agroecological conditions (Johnson 1993
, Sieverding 1991
). Johnson et al (2003)
have pointed out differences among AMF taxa in their strategies for the acquisition of nutrients. AMF colonization in roots change across different phenological stages of wheat (Mohammad et al 1998
, Schalamuk et al 2004
). Several studies have found temporal variation in the diversity of mycorrhizal communities of natural ecosystems (Lee and Koske 1994
, Merryweather and Fitter 1998
, Eom et al 2000
). However it is still unclear how AMF communities vary with different phenological stages of crops. Seasonal patterns of AM fungal sporulation have been investigated in the grasslands of Argentina (Lugo and Cabello 2002
) but there is little information about AMF in agricultural systems in our country (Menén-dez et al 2001
).
Doran and Parkin (1994)
suggested that new strategies based on microbiology should be designed to promote long-term soil sustainability in agroeco-systems. We hypothesized that the agricultural practices of tillage and fertilization would affect the composition of the AM fungal community. To test this hypothesis we studied experimental wheat monocultures that had experienced different levels of N fertilization and tillage.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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AMF communities were studied by spore extraction from soil. Hence 100 g soil (dry weight) of each subsample was wet-sieved, following the methodology proposed by Gerdemann and Nicolson (1963)
. Samples were centrifuged in sucrose gradient (Walker et al 1982
). Quantification was carried out in 9 cm diam Petri dishes with a gridline of 1 cm per side under a stereoscopic microscope at 50 x (Lugo and Cabello 2002
). Ten divisions were counted and related to the total number of spores by using the method modified by McKenney and Lindsey (1987)
. For taxonomic identification fungal spores were mounted onto slides with PVA (Omar et al 1979
) with or without Melzer reagent (Morton 1988
). Specimens were compared with original species descriptions and reference isolates described by the International Culture Collection of Arbuscular and Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi. In most cases identification of the samples was assessed by the observation of morphological features of the spores obtained after sieving and decanting. These observations were corroborated with observations of freshly formed AMF spores in trap cultures. Many of these species were isolated in monospecific cultures and incorporated to the germplasm bank, AMF living culture collection at Spegazzini Institute, La Plata, Argentina.
The frequency of occurrence of each AMF species was computed with the formula: Xi/X0 x 100, where Xi = the population density for an individual species and X0 = the total population. The frequency of occurrence of each species was used to calculate the Shannon-Weaver biodiversity index (H) species richness (S) and evenness (E), according to Magurran (1988)
. Differences in AM diversity among treatments were determined with multifactor ANOVA with least significant difference (LSD) test. The percentages of each family of Glomeromycota were arcsin transformed and compared with ANOVA and LSD test.
| RESULTS |
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| DISCUSSION |
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On the other hand Johnson (1993)
, Egerton-Waburton and Allen (2000)
and Johnson et al (2003)
have found differences in species composition with N enrichment. However in our experiment those differences were not found, probably due to the low amount of fertilizer applied for wheat cultivation in Argentina (Maddonni et al 2003
).
Biodiversity showed larger differences over the crop cycle than those arising from the different treatments. The increase in biodiversity coincides with the end of the host growing cycle, showing a decrease of this index in fallow treatments. Temporal variation in the community may reflect changes in the functional role of the symbiosis during the season (Rosendahl and Stukenbrock 2004
), and the changes in the bio-diversity during the crop cycle show the importance of sampling in different moments of the year to reveal AMF biodiversity. The H index was lower in fallows than those indices at different crop phenological stages. During fallow times we observed an increase of Glomus spp. such as Glomus claroideum, G. coronatum, G. etunicatum and G. mosseae (fallow 20012002) and G. etunicatum (fallow 20022003). Thus a low bio-diversity with predominance of Glomus spp. was observed during fallow and in no-tillage treatments. A higher dominance of Glomus species in fallow also was found by Troeh and Loynachan (2003)
. Because fallow samples were taken before tillage, many plant species were growing and hosting AM fungi. The decline of biodiversity indices in fallow shows that competition among AM fungi and interspecific fungal interactions appeared to be more important than vegetative characteristics on determining the composition of the AMF community, a fact that is supported by Gemma et al (1989)
.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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1 Corresponding author. E-mail: mcabello{at}netverk.com.ar
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