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CSIRO Media Release | |||
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15 January 1998 |
Ref 98/15 |
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Tiny fungi living around the roots of native trees and shrubs are probably critical to the success of farm revegetation programs, a CSIRO study has shown.
Dr Inez Tommerup and Dr Neale Bougher of CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products, have completed the first major investigation of fungi in the woodland patches left after the clearing of more than 90% of the West Australian wheatbelt land for cropping.
The scientists found that the roots of native plants are only sparsely
distributed through woodland soil, but mycelia (threads) from mycorrhizal
fungi are widespread.
"The findings suggest the presence of the right fungi can be critical
to the success of farm revegetation programs," Dr Tommerup said
"The fungi’s role is to pick up nutrients and give them to the plants in return for carbon. The fungi provide phosphorus to nitrogen-fixing plants so they fix more nitrogen, and this increases the nitrogen in the soil for non-fixing plants including the eucalypts.
"The wheatbelt trees and shrubs have evolved to grow with fungi. The soil is low in phosphorus, nitrogen and trace elements, and if we didn’t have the fungi the trees and shrubs would have much less capacity to capture their vital nutrients," she said.
The researchers are confident that the knowledge now available on wheatbelt soil fungi can be used more widely in the regeneration of degraded woodlands and in ‘vegetation reconstruction’ - tree and shrub planting to create woodland on cleared areas.
"The ever-growing problems of rising watertables and soil salination leave no doubt about the need to increase tree and shrub cover. But this is currently hard to achieve, with many of the remnant patches of bush not regenerating and tree planting having low success rates," Dr Tommerup said
Dr Tommerup and Dr Bougher are now developing a method for introducing
suitable sets of fungi when local trees and shrubs are planted on farmland.
The technique involves raising seedlings with a wide diversity of ectomycorrhizal
fungi from woodland areas where the chosen plant species grow naturally.
When the seedlings are planted in an area being revegetated, they take
the fungi with them.
More information from:
- Dr Inez Tommerup 08 9333 6674
Mick Crowe 03 6281 8357
E-mail: Mick.Crowe@ffp.csiro.au
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