Manipulating below ground diversity for above ground diversity: application of fungi for vegetation restoration

2018

The loss and fragmentation of habitats is one of the main drivers of deteriorating ecosystem functioning and services. This has induced a growing need for conservation and increasingly more – restoration. A central part of land-ecosystems is soil biota with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi being a key constituent. As ubiquitous plant symbionts, AM fungi have a global impact on carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling, soil formation, erosion and leaching processes, therefore influencing all spheres of earth. In soils where disturbance has lead to the loss of soil cover or a drastic change in plant community composition, the absence of suitable AM fungal symbionts can lead to slow post-res…