Seedling ectomycorrhization is central to conifer forest restoration: a case study from Kashmir Himalaya
Abstract Over the past few decades, many countries have attempted to carry out forest landscape restoration over millions of hectares of degraded land. Such efforts, however, have met with limited success because of several factors, including a lack of adequate emphasis on ectomycorrhization of the...
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Nature Portfolio
2022-08-01
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Series: | Scientific Reports |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17073-7 |
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author | Rezwana Assad Zafar Ahmad Reshi Irfan Rashid |
author_facet | Rezwana Assad Zafar Ahmad Reshi Irfan Rashid |
author_sort | Rezwana Assad |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Abstract Over the past few decades, many countries have attempted to carry out forest landscape restoration over millions of hectares of degraded land. Such efforts, however, have met with limited success because of several factors, including a lack of adequate emphasis on ectomycorrhization of the nursery seedlings. A similar scenario is seen in the Kashmir Himalaya, where the natural regeneration of degraded forests is poor despite ample restoration efforts by forest managers. To overcome this challenge, we identified two promising ectomycorrhizal species, namely Clitocybe nuda and Cortinarius distans, for their use in ectomycorrhization of seedlings of three common conifers, namely Abies pindrow, Cedrus deodara, and Picea smithiana. Laboratory studies were carried out to investigate the requirements for optimum mycelial growth of these ectomycorrhizal fungi. Best ECM mycelial growth was obtained in the basic MMN medium containing glucose as the source of carbon and nitrogen in ammonium form. C. distans showed higher growth than C. nuda across all the treatments and also proved significantly more effective in enhancing the survival and growth of the conifer host plant seedlings. The present study resulted in standardizing the requirements for mass inoculum production of the two mycobionts which could help in successful forest restoration programmes. |
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language | English |
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spelling | doaj.art-512e7397cc394a578b485eb6bafb823a2022-12-22T04:01:50ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-08-011211910.1038/s41598-022-17073-7Seedling ectomycorrhization is central to conifer forest restoration: a case study from Kashmir HimalayaRezwana Assad0Zafar Ahmad Reshi1Irfan Rashid2Department of Botany, University of KashmirDepartment of Botany, University of KashmirDepartment of Botany, University of KashmirAbstract Over the past few decades, many countries have attempted to carry out forest landscape restoration over millions of hectares of degraded land. Such efforts, however, have met with limited success because of several factors, including a lack of adequate emphasis on ectomycorrhization of the nursery seedlings. A similar scenario is seen in the Kashmir Himalaya, where the natural regeneration of degraded forests is poor despite ample restoration efforts by forest managers. To overcome this challenge, we identified two promising ectomycorrhizal species, namely Clitocybe nuda and Cortinarius distans, for their use in ectomycorrhization of seedlings of three common conifers, namely Abies pindrow, Cedrus deodara, and Picea smithiana. Laboratory studies were carried out to investigate the requirements for optimum mycelial growth of these ectomycorrhizal fungi. Best ECM mycelial growth was obtained in the basic MMN medium containing glucose as the source of carbon and nitrogen in ammonium form. C. distans showed higher growth than C. nuda across all the treatments and also proved significantly more effective in enhancing the survival and growth of the conifer host plant seedlings. The present study resulted in standardizing the requirements for mass inoculum production of the two mycobionts which could help in successful forest restoration programmes.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17073-7 |
spellingShingle | Rezwana Assad Zafar Ahmad Reshi Irfan Rashid Seedling ectomycorrhization is central to conifer forest restoration: a case study from Kashmir Himalaya Scientific Reports |
title | Seedling ectomycorrhization is central to conifer forest restoration: a case study from Kashmir Himalaya |
title_full | Seedling ectomycorrhization is central to conifer forest restoration: a case study from Kashmir Himalaya |
title_fullStr | Seedling ectomycorrhization is central to conifer forest restoration: a case study from Kashmir Himalaya |
title_full_unstemmed | Seedling ectomycorrhization is central to conifer forest restoration: a case study from Kashmir Himalaya |
title_short | Seedling ectomycorrhization is central to conifer forest restoration: a case study from Kashmir Himalaya |
title_sort | seedling ectomycorrhization is central to conifer forest restoration a case study from kashmir himalaya |
url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17073-7 |
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