Month: September 2022

"SOIL CARBON STORAGE is an important function of terrestrial ecosystems. Soil contains more carbon than plants and the atmosphere combined. Measurements of plant carbon allocation to mycorrhizal fungi have been estimated to be 5-20% of total plant carbon uptake, and in some ecosystems the biomass of mycorrhizal fungi can be comparable to the biomass of fine roots." https://lnkd.in/epkWVrv View in LinkedIn

GIANT FUNGAL CARBON SINK. "Recent research has shown that mycorrhizal fungi hold 50 to 70 percent of the total carbon stored in leaf litter and soil on forested islands in Sweden." https://lnkd.in/epkWVrv View in LinkedIn

BIDIRECTIONAL CARBON. "Although it had been stated that this traffic in carbon is unidirectional—plants-to-fungi—some 400 species of non-photosynthetic plants (e.g., Indian pipes) that lack chlorophyll are proof to the contrary. For these mycoheterotrophs, mycorrhizae are the primary suppliers of essential carbon compounds." https://lnkd.in/e4xrzsX View in LinkedIn

FUNGI KEY FOR PLANT NUTRITION. "Mycorrhizas, not roots, are the chief organs of nutrient uptake." https://lnkd.in/ezApC35 View in LinkedIn

SAPROPHYTES. "Unlike plants, fungi cannot make their own food. They absorb their food from dead organic matter, or other living organisms. The source of their food is called a substrate if it is dead, and a host if it is living." https://lnkd.in/eA73aJm View in LinkedIn

NUTRITIONAL EXCHANGE. "Plants depend on mycorrhizal fungal filaments to supply them with a stunning proportion of their needed water and minerals. In some forests, these fungi provide the plants with up to 80% of their nitrogen and 90% of their phosphorus. The fungi, in turn, depend on plants to provide them with organic compounds needed for their own growth." https://lnkd.in/e4xrzsX View in LinkedIn

MINERAL BOTTLENECK. "Soil resources tend to limit plant growth. No additional C can be fixed if water, N, or P cannot be acquired in sufficient quantities. Even in rich soils, as plant numbers increase per unit soil, resources per plant decline. Second, mycorrhizae alter the competitive outcomes between mycorrhizal plants, and between mycotrophic and nonmycotrophic plants." https://lnkd.in/e7Tq5KC View in LinkedIn

CARBON ENERGY. "Energy, in the form of C compounds, is the currency for exchange of soil resources. Photosynthetic rates depend on the concentrations of N (as RuBP carboxylase and other enzymes), P (for ATP, ADP), Fe and Mg (for chlorophyll), internal CO2, and water (to keep stomates open to fix CO2)." https://lnkd.in/e7Tq5KC View in LinkedIn

"MYCORRHIZAE by increasing P and N uptake, create a C sink and enhance the photosynthetic machinery. Mycorrhizae also increase water throughput, opening the stomates. Together, these increase the rates of total carbon gain by 10% to 40%." https://lnkd.in/e7Tq5KC View in LinkedIn

PHOSPHATE DEFICIENCY. "Plant roots alone may be incapable of taking up phosphate ions that are demineralized in soils with a basic pH. The mycelium of the mycorrhizal fungus can, however, access these phosphorus sources, and make them available to the plants they colonize. Thus many plants are able to obtain phosphate, without using soil as a source." https://lnkd.in/eXuU-Hn View in LinkedIn