Mycorrhizal inoculum in a peat deposit formed under a white spruce stand in Alberta

Abstract
A feather moss peat deposit formed under white spruce in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada, was assessed for the occurrence and type of ectomycorrhizal and vesicular–arbuscular (VA) mycorrhizal endophytes. Three profiles were excavated within the deposit and samples were obtained from the 20- to 30-, 50- to 60-, and 80- to 90-cm depths. A greenhouse bioassay using jack pine and slender wheatgrass demonstrated that mycorrhizal inoculum was present in the peat, though the distribution of inoculum was patchy. While ectomycorrhizal inoculum was present in all profiles and at all depths, fungi which could form mycorrhizae with slender wheatgrass were absent from one profile and did not occur in the 20- to 30-cm layer of a second. Twelve fungi formed ectomycorrhizae with jack pine including an E-strain fungus and Cenococcum geophilum. The most common jack pine symbiont was an unknown ascomycete which produced cystidial ectomycorrhizae. Basidiomycetes present included Tomentella sp., Amphinema byssoides, and two Rhizopogon-like species. Only one species of VA fungus, Glomus aggregation, was associated with slender wheatgrass roots. Viable chlamydospores of VA fungi were not detected in the peat deposit.