Mycorrhizal Types in Native and Exotic woody species in Southern South America: a Biogeographic Approach.

URCELAY, C; TECCO, PA

Edinburgh

Congreso; The Biology of Fungi 9th International Mycological Congress; 2010

Elsevier

It is well known that mycorrhizal types are not randomly distributed among biomes. We asked whether the mycorrhizal type frequency (Arbuscular mycorrhizas: AM; Ectomycorrhizas: ECM and Non-mycorrhizal: NM) vary among native and exotic woody species along three Biogeographical domains in southern Southamerica: Amazonian (tropical), Chaquean (subtropical) and Sub-Antarctic (Temperate). We constructed a database with 161 woody species (74 natives and 87 exotics) including their mycorrhizal status. Data were analyzed with contingency analysis. We found that: (1) frequencies of mycorrhizal types vary between biomes both among native and exotic species (p<0.0013 and p<0.05, respectively); (2) frequencies of mycorrhizal types differ between natives and exotics when considering the three biomes together, mainly due to a higher frequency of exotic ECM species; and (3) these differences in frequency between natives and exotics is consistent within each biome (Amazonian, p<0.0194; Chaquean, p<0.0003 y Sub-Antarctic, p<0.0191). The differences in frequencies of mycorrhizal types between native and exotic woody species detected in this study suggest that the identity of belowground fungal symbionts might have an important role in biological invasions at this biogeographic scale.