The effect of land use intensity on ectomycorrhizal extramatrical mycelium and community composition under a gradient of nitrogen availability
Duration of the project: 2014 - 2017
Contact: Abdallah Awad, Email: aawad(at)gwdg.de
Boreal and temperate forests are mainly dominated by trees that form a mutualistic symbiosis with ectomycorrhizal fungi. In this association, fungi supply the host trees with the most limited nutrients (such as N and P) and receive in return significant proportions of the photosynthetically fixed trees carbon. One distinctive trait of these mycorrhizal fungi is that they produce an immense hyphal filamentous mycelium in the soil, supporting the tree roots capacity in nutrient uptake.
Ectomycorrhizal fungal activity and growth depend entirely on the carbon supply of the host trees. Therefore, any alteration in the C flux towards roots may affect the ectomycorrhizal symbionts. For example, forest practices such as thinning and pruning which result in enhanced tree light availability, a key player in photosynthesis, putatively increase the tree belowground C supply. In my project, I investigate the impact of intensity of forest management practices on the ectomycorrhizal mycelium production and functional redundancy of ectomycorrhizal species.
In the boreal and temperate forest ecosystem, long-term nitrogen deposition has significantly affected the ectomycorrhizal mycelial production and altered the community composition. In this respect, I test the following hypotheses:
- The ectomycorrhizal fungal biomass and production are positively affected by the forest management intensity
- High nitrogen availability negatively affects the production of ectomycorrhizal fungal mycelium
To test these hypotheses, we make use of the experimental plots in the Biodiversity Exploratories.
Posters
Awad A, Pena R (2016) Mycorrhizal mycelium production in relation to
forest management intensity and ecosystem functions. Biodiversity
exploratory. The Annual assembly of Biodiversity Exploratories,
Wernigerode, Germany (16-19 Feb 2016)
Awad A, Pena R (2015)
Mycorrhizal mycelium production in relation to forest management
intensity and ecosystem functions. Gfö Conference, Göttingen, Germany
(31 Aug - 04 Sep 2015)
Awad A, Pena R (2015) Mycorrhizal
mycelium production in relation to forest management intensity and
ecosystem functions. Biodiversity exploratory. The Annual assembly of
Biodiversity Exploratories, Wernigerode, Germany (17-22 Feb 2015)
Presentations
Awad A, and Pena R (2016) Mycorrhizal mycelium production in relation
to forest management intensity and ecosystem functions. Biodiversity
exploratory. The annual Assembly of Biodiversity Exploratories,
Wernigerode, Germany (16-19 Feb 2016)
Awad A (2015) The effect of parent materials on ectomycorrhizal community composition and diversity. Forstbotanisches Seminar,
Department of Forest Botany and Tree Physiology, University of
Göttingen, Germany (14 Mar 2015)
This project is partly funded by German Science Foundation in
the framework of the SPP 1374 "Biodiversitäts-Exploratorien" (www.biodiversity-exploratories.de) by the grant PE 2256/1-1.
Abdallah Awad thanks the DAAD for funding a PhD scholarship.