Most ecological studies of fungi associated with tropical plants have focused on the rhizosphere or phyllosphere of seedlings, saplings and adult trees (Augspurger 1983, 1984; Bell et al. 2006, Gilbert 2002, Gilbert et al. 2002, Husband et al. 2002, Kiers et al. 2000, Mangan et al. 2004). However, fungi also infect the seeds of tropical trees, reducing seed survival and potentially affecting ad...

In the present study, the occurrence and species diversity of insect-associated fungi in soil collected mainly from forest habitats in different regions of China were compared by using the ‘Galleria biat method’. Insect-associated fungi were defined to include known insect pathogenic fungi, opportunistic pathogens and secondary colonizers isolated from the Galleria mellonella bait insect expose...

Since time immemorial, non-wood forest products (NWFPs), particularly wild forest foods, have played an important role in the diets and health of people living in and outside forests, in both rural and urban areas. Some of these products, such as wild game, fruit, seeds, roots, nuts and fungi, are still used as a source of food, contributing to both food and nutritional security, while others a...

In this study, we collected rhizosphere soils and root samples from a post-mining area and a natural forest area in Jecheon, Korea. We extracted spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) from rhizospheres, and then examined the sequences of 18S rDNA genes of the AMF from the collected roots of plants. We compared the AMF communities in the post-mining area and the natural forest area by sequ...

Intense hurricanes disturb many tropical forests, but the key mechanisms driving post-hurricane forest changes are not fully understood. In Puerto Rico, we used a replicated factorial experiment to determine the mechanisms of forest change associated with canopy openness and organic matter (debris) addition. Cascading effects from canopy openness accounted for most of the shifts in the forest b...

The role of common mycorrhizal networks (CMNs) in postfire boreal forest successional trajectories is unknown. We investigated this issue by sampling a 50-m by 40-m area of naturally regenerating black spruce (Picea mariana), trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides), and paper birch (Betula papyrifera) seedlings at various distances from alder (Alnus viridis subsp. crispa), a nitrogen-fixing shrub...

Most terrestrial plants interact with diverse clades of mycorrhizal and root-endophytic fungi in their roots. Through belowground plant-fungal interactions, dominant plants can benefit by interacting with host-specific mutualistic fungi and proliferate in a community based on positive plant-mutualistic fungal feedback. On the other hand, subordinate plant species may persist in the community by...

Enzymes are distinct natural biological polymers which can catalyze the chemical/ biological reactions and convert substrates to specific product (Haq et al. 2006). Xylanase [E.C.3.2.1.8] are a class of hydrolytic enzymes which can hydrolyze the straight polysaccharide -1, 4-xylan in hemicelluloses which is a noteworthy component of secondary cell wall of plants (Dhiman et al. 2008). Xylan, the...

Progress on two main studies on fungal ectomycorrhizal communities in the Sierra National Forest is discussed. One study examined the short-term effects of ground fire on the ectomycorrhizal community and the other examined the ectomycorrhizal associates of snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea). In the ground-fire study we found that a large initial reduction in ectomycorrhizal biomass is caused prim...

Anthropogenic release of biologically available nitrogen (N) has increased dramatically over the last 150 years, which can alter the processes controlling carbon (C) storage in terrestrial ecosystems. In a northern hardwood forest ecosystem located in Michigan in the United States, nearly 20 years of experimentally increased atmospheric N deposition has reduced forest floor decay and increased ...