Initial vesicular–arbuscular mycorrhizal development of slender wheatgrass on two amended mine spoils

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Abstract
The initial vesicular–arbuscular (VA) mycorrhizal development of slender wheatgrass on extracted oil-sands and subalpine coal-mine spoils, amended with either fertilizer, peat, or liquid sewage sludge, was examined. Plants were sampled at 2, 6, and 10 weeks after plant emergence and the level of infection was expressed as length of mycorrhizal root per plant and length of root which contained arbuscules, vesicles, or only hyphae. Mycorrhizal infection of slender wheatgrass on the oil sands was limited to plants on the peat-amended spoil. Infection of plants on the peat-amended oil-sands spoil was detected by 2 weeks. Plants on the subalpine spoil were infected at 2 weeks only on the peat-amended spoil. While slender wheatgrass on the control and fertilizer-amended spoil developed mycorrhizae by 6 weeks, infection was not observed in plants on the sewage-amended spoil until 10 weeks. At 10 weeks, there were no significant differences in lengths of mycorrhizal root per plant among the amendments. Increased P levels in the fertilizer- and sewage-amended subalpine spoil did not suppress VA mycorrhizal development.