Eurasian journal of forest research;Vol.22

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Effects of soil compaction on the seedlings growth and ectomycorrhizal fungal community in hybrid larch

SUGAI, Tetsuto;YOKOYAMA, Satoko;TAMAI, Yutaka;MORI, Hirotaka;MARCHI, Enrico;WATANABE, Toshihiro;SATOH, Fuyuki;KOIKE, Takayoshi

Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/84956
JaLCDOI : 10.14943/EJFR.22.78
KEYWORDS : Soil compaction;ectomycorrhizal fungi;hybrid larch;symbiosis

Abstract

Soil physical composition is one of the fundamental factors regulating plant growth as well as soil microbes. For the rising expectation to optimize techniques of forestry machinery for sustainable forest managements in Japan, it is essential to assess the effects of soil compaction caused by machinery running on seedlings of afforestation tree species. Since most afforestation tree species interact with soil microbes, such as the symbiosis with ectomycorrhizal fungi, the effects of soil compaction would extend to the relationship between these microbes and planted seedlings. We evaluated the effects of soil compaction on growth and ectomycorrhizal fungi in hybrid larch seedlings. The experimental site was established with no compacted and compacted plots in the Sapporo experimental forest site of Hokkaido University, where two-year-old seedlings were planted. At compacted plots, the surface hardness was 25 kg cm-2 and the bulk density was 1.1 g cm-3. Height growth of seedlings was significantly suppressed, and the dry weight was decreased 50% at compacted plots than that of seedlings grown at uncompacted plots. The dominant group of associated ectomycorrhizal fungi was changed by soil compaction. Our data showed that the effect of soil compaction can suppress growth of seedlings and shape the specific ectomycorrhizal fungal community.

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