Chapter 3: Morphospecies biodiversity of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in South America. A review.

SOTERAS, FLORENCIA; ABARCA, CAMILA; CABELLO, M. N.; IGLESIAS, MA. DEL ROSARIO; RISIO, L. V.; DOMINGUEZ, L. S.; COFRÉ, NOELIA; VELÁZQUEZ, SILVANA; ONTIVERO R. E.; LUGO M.A.

Mycorrhizal Fungi in South America

Springer

Año: 2019; p. 49 - 72

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are a cosmopolitan group of rootsymbionts associated with about 80% of earth plants. Current morphological andmolecular classification describes around 300 and 1000 AMF taxa respectively.Despite the communities of AMF of many ecological divisions, biomes andecosystems remain entirely unstudied, cumulative information has increasedconsiderably over the last years, particularly for South America (SA). In thisChapter is reviewed the published literature of AMF morphological richnessfor SA in order to evaluate richness patterns across the ecological divisions ofthe region. The compiled data included 2187 records. The 186 morphologicaltaxa identified in the literature evidence an increasing interest in the study ofthese fungi in the region, yet with an uneven distribution among ecodivisionswithin the Amazonia, Atlantic forest, Caatinga and Chaco, which were themain research focus. Glomeraceae species predominated in all ecodivisionswith Acaulosporaceae and Gigasporaceae alternated as the second predominantfamily. It is difficult to draw broad scale conclusions about richness changesamong ecological divisions in SA as there are many that remain unstudiedand others poorly sampled (e.g. Guianan lowlands and Patagonia respectively).Therefore, further studies of these ecosystems should be encouraged.