CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

In Argentina, there are about 2,000,000 ha of grasslands suitable for afforestation with fast growing non-native conifers along the piedmont of the Patagonian Andes. This area is located within the ecotone between the Nothofagus dominated forests on the west and the steppe on the east, and ponderosa pine is the most widely planted species. Many planting sites in Patagonia are under water stress conditions. The aim of this study was to survey mycorrhizal species richness and their distribution along the precipitation gradient in ponderosa pine plantations in Patagonia. This information is very important to select suitable species for a mycorrhizal inoculation program in forest nuerseries. Eleven plantations, four under a precipitation regime of 1000 mm (humid plantations) and six under 400-600 mm (dry plantations), were surveyed for two springs and two autumns for hypogeous and epigeous fungi. Amphinema byssoides was the most widely distributed species, found in all plantations. The other species differed in their presence according to the humidity gradient. Humid plantations presented 9 different taxa, each plantation displaying a species richness between 4 to 6. Hebelomamesophaeum was present in all of them, followed by Suillus luteus and Rhizopogon rubescens. There were also 8 saprophytic species determined. Dry plantations presented 5 different taxa, and each plantations displayed a species richness between 1 to 4. S.luteus, H. mesophaeum and R. rubescens were the most widely distributed. Saprophytic species richness was lower, with narrower distribution. Data showed that species richness was strongly dependent on precipitation. The principal species, though, were the same, but their relative occurrence varied in different conditions. (Poster).

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