{"id":95,"date":"2015-02-25T15:31:12","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T15:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbgecologicalrestoration.wordpress.com\/?p=95"},"modified":"2015-02-25T15:31:12","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T15:31:12","slug":"can-fungus-help-grow-trees-in-madagascar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/can-fungus-help-grow-trees-in-madagascar\/","title":{"rendered":"Can fungus help grow trees in Madagascar?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Timberlake and Cyprien Miandrimanana write from Madagascar about a field experiment using fungus to help tree seedlings survive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the problems that has long bedeviled ecological restoration efforts in Madagascar is persuading young seedlings to grow at a pace of more than just a few centimetres per year. The site of Ankafobe<\/a> in the central highlands is a prime example, with many five year old individuals, planted in the anthropogenic grassland surrounding the remaining forest fragments, still no taller than waist height. Clearly, the environment into which the seedlings are planted is in some way inhospitable.\u00a0 One hypothesis to explain seedling\u00a0underperformance \u00a0is that they are not managing to establish their normal symbiotic relationships with vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM)<\/a> fungi on which most higher plants depend.<\/p>\n

\"Scaled<\/a>
Scaled visual comparison of VAM and VAM-less seedlings at Mitsinjo in Andasibe, Madagascar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a VAM symbiosis, plants exchange a significant carbohydrate donation to the fungus in return for\u00a0important nutrients, particularly phosphorus, and often increased drought tolerance. So if mycorrhizae propagules are\u00a0absent in the savanna soil, this could well explain the slow growth rates and high mortality observed among planted tree seedlings at sites like Ankafobe.<\/p>\n

In response to\u00a0concern about poor seedling performance, various restoration projects in Madagascar have begun inoculating their nursery seedlings with VAM using a simple protocol pioneered by Mitsinjo<\/a>, a restoration project in the eastern rain forest of Andasibe. Soil (presumed to contain mycorrhizal fungus) is gathered from underneath forest trees, mixed with sand in a sack-lined pit and then sown with rice and beans to act as hosts for the developing VAM. After three months of maturation, you have a sack-full of VAM inoculum, ready to be applied to the young germinating seedlings – one teaspoon per plant.<\/p>\n