Abstract
Sustainable land use requires that soil management practices be adopted to conserve and augment soil resources. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are important in the soil ecosystem as a key link between plants and soil, mediating many interactions. The effects of mycorrhizas in agriculture, horticulture and land-reclamation are almost exclusively beneficial. There is increasing evidence that AMF can enhance crop productivity in the field, and they are also important in the way crops respond to fertilisation regimes. Direct inoculation of AMF is currently limited to small-scale, high value crops, and there is scarce information on large-scale field inoculations, partially due to the fact that these fungi are obligate symbionts which hinders production of inoculum. This picture is, however, rapidly changing with new approaches and methods to improve both, inoculum production and application. In this chapter we discuss the factors which need to be considered for successful field inoculation with AMF. There are mainly two areas where the introduction of selected fungi could be considered: agriculture-horticulture and land reclamation. Though these represent quite different scenarios, the same key factors need to be evaluated before deciding on the appropriateness of inoculation. These key factors can be classified as parameters associated with soil characteristics and as parameters associated with plant characteristics. A selection process must then be implemented to select the most suitable fungi with respect to the prevailing soil conditions and the vegetation objectives set for each situation.
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Estaún, V., Camprubí, A., Joner, E.J. (2002). Selecting arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi for field application. In: Gianinazzi, S., Schüepp, H., Barea, J.M., Haselwandter, K. (eds) Mycorrhizal Technology in Agriculture. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8117-3_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8117-3_20
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel
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