Vesicular–arbuscular mycorrhiza and soil fertility influence mineral concentrations in seedlings of eight hardwood species

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Abstract
Eight hardwood species were grown under two sets of fertilizer and vesicular–arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) treatments. In the first study three treatments of 140, 560, and 1120 kg/ha of 10– 10– 10 (% N, P2O5, and K2O, respectively) fertilizer were added to fumigated soil with or without a mixture of Glomusmosseae Nicol. and Gerd. and Glomusetunicatus Becker and Gerd. (GM). In the second study, seedlings were grown with VAM treatments of (i) the same Glomus (GM) mixture as in study 1, (ii) Glomusfasiculatus (Thaxter) Gerd. and Trappe (GF), or (iii) mixed cultures of several Glomus and Gigaspora species (GG). A fertilizer treatment of 280 kg/ha of 10– 10– 10 was added to all seedlings. All treatments, in both studies, also received 10 equal applications of NH4NO3, totaling 1680 kg/ha, during the growing season. No single nutrient was consistently higher in nonmycorrhizal or VAM seedlings in either study and no symbiont produced consistently high concentrations of all nutrients in all species. Uninoculated seedlings frequently had higher N, K, Ca, and Mg concentrations than VAM seedlings. Inoculated seedlings generally had higher total P concentrations than uninoculated seedlings. For uninoculated seedlings of five of the species, P concentrations increased with higher fertility levels. Seedlings inoculated with GM and GG had higher P concentrations than those inoculated with GF. In numerous instances, uninoculated seedlings had higher mineral concentrations than VAM seedlings even though the uninoculated seedlings were always the smallest. This suggests that VAM provide stimulation other than or in addition to the enhanced nutrient uptake.