Abstract Detail

Ecology

Schmitt, Dustin [1], Mantia, Tabitha [1], Twanabasu, Bishnu [1].

Mycorrhizal Fungi in Urban Prairie Restoration by Living Soil Amendment in Texas.

Due to the rapid decline of the North Central Texas prairie there have been a number of projects focused on the restoration of these ecologically significant grasslands, as they are the base of our ecosystem. One of these projects has been started by The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), to determine the effectiveness of adding living soil amendments in the effort to restore urban prairies. BRIT has established three restoration plots to test the effectiveness of living soil amendments on the overall restoration of the urban prairie. These plots were designated as the control (NN), living soil (LN) and living soil with Sustainable Growth Texas (LS). This study was aimed to measure the mycorrhizal fungi assisting the prairie plants by accessing soil nutrition, which otherwise would be unavailable to plants.Three random soil cores were collected from each treatment plot in March, 2018. Plant roots and mycorrhizal spores were extracted from the soils by wet sieving. Extracted spores were counted under microscope, while the roots were cleared and stained to prepare two microscope slides from each soil sample. Slides were observed and quantified under microscope for mycorrhizal propagules to find the percent colonization in roots of prairie plant community. Collected data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA to compare the means. The mycorrhizal hyphal colonization was 52.50±13.65% in the roots collected from LN, while that from LS and NN were 40±8.85% and 47.67±8.76% respectively. Similarly, spore density was counted at 12.44±1.02 spores per gram of dry soil in LN, 10.46±4.70 in LS and 10.56±4.54 in NN. There was not a significant difference (p≤0.05) in hyphal colonization and spore density among the treatment plots compared to control plots. This study shows that the living soil and the living soil with SGTX did not have much of an effect on the overall hyphal colonization compared to the control treatment; this was also the case for also the mycorrhizal spore density on both of the plots. Further studies should focus on the plant diversity and soil nutrients to compare the effectiveness of living soil amendments to degraded urban landscape.

1 - weatherford college, 225 college park Dr., weatherford, TX, 76086, United States

Keywords:
none specified

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: P, Ecology Posters
Location: Arizona Ballroom/Starr Pass
Date: Monday, July 29th, 2019
Time: 5:30 PM This poster will be presented at 5:30 pm. The Poster Session runs from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. Posters with odd poster numbers are presented at 5:30 pm, and posters with even poster numbers are presented at 6:15 pm.
Number: PEC003
Abstract ID:168
Candidate for Awards:None