Abstract

LOZANO SANCHEZ, Juan David; CALINDO CANABAL, Víctor Andrés  and  ARMBRECHT, Inge. Mycellium longitude and glomaline in arbuscular mycorrhyzae: soil aggregation in Andean forests and agroecosystems. Acta Agron. [online]. 2022, vol.71, n.2, pp.139-147.  Epub June 02, 2023. ISSN 0120-2812.  https://doi.org/10.15446/acag.v71n2.101536.

Studying the role of mycorrhyzae for supporting ecological processes and the stability and aggregation of soil is of great importance in the ecosystems of the Andean region undergoing high transformation. This study evaluated the importance of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) through the traits of spore density, external mycelium length (EML), and glomalin concentration on the aggregation indices and the physical and chemical characteristics in 20 patches classified in four land uses (forest, stubble, coffee plantations, and cattle pastures) in the high basin of Cali River (Colombia). The traits of EML, difficult- extractable glomalin-related soil protein (DE-GRSP), and total glomalin-related soil protein (T-GRSP), were significantly higher in forest, stubble and coffee soils, which, in turn, presented the highest soil aggregation values. On the other hand, the soils from cattle pastures presented a significantly higher percentage of microaggregates, macroaggregates, spore density and easily- extractable glomalin-related soil protein (EE-GRSP) than the other land uses which suggests adverse effects from compaction and erosion. The higher proportion of stable macroaggregates suggests that the AMF improve soil conditions during the agglutination of particles in stable aggregates due to glomalin. Although it is evident how the effects of some mycorrhizal traits can improve the soil conditions, in other agroecosystems, these effects are affected by the type of agricultural activity and the intensity of soil tillage. Similarly, other ecosystem processes involved in the regulation of fertility and the transformation of organic matter can also be affected.

Keywords : soil aggregation; plant cover; Colombia; aggregate stability; external micelium.

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