the Potential of Native Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Inoculation to Improve the Dry Evergreen Afromontane Forests Restoration Efforts in Ethiopia
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Date
2020-06-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Currently, the restoration of dry evergreen Afromontane forests (DAF) is one of the
most important environmental agendas in Ethiopia. However, DAF restoration is very
challenging and so far, there has been limited success. Therefore, this study aimed to
evaluate if there are potential benefits of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)
inoculation to improve DAF restoration. Firstly, we investigated the AMF status of
nine native tree species raised in ten tree nurseries of central and northern Ethiopia.
Secondly, we determined the AMF spore abundance (SA) and infectivity and the soil
physicochemical property (a proxy to AMF composition) across four land uses, viz.,
natural forest (NF), shrub land (ShL), cropland (CrL), and grazing land (GrL) of the
Chilimo forest (CF). Thirdly, in a mesh-house experiment, we evaluated the wholesoil
AMF inoculation effects on the growth and quality of Cordia africana Lam.,
Juniperus procera Hochst. ex Endl., and Podocarpus falcatus (Thunb.) R. Br. ex Mirb
seedlings grown on sterile and non-sterile degraded DAF ecosystem soil. SA in the
nurseries ranged from 1.30-24.63 spores g-1 of soil and was comparable with the SA
range found in the CF (3.4-25.3 g-1 of soil). Root AMF colonization (RC) of seedlings
ranged from 8-97.67%. Our results indicated that none of the seedlings were with low
v
SA and RC simultaneously. We also found that land-use changes in the CF,
significantly (p<0.05) affected most of the soil physicochemical variables. The
nonmetric multidimentioanl scaling ordination plot depicted that the soil
physicochemical property was resilient to CF degradation (NF-ShL conversion) but
not deforestation (NF-CrL or GrL conversions). SA was resilient to both the
degradation and deforestation of CF but infectivity was only resilient to NF-CrL
conversion. The mesh-house experiment results indicated that C. africana had
significantly (p<0.05) higher mycorrhizal responsiveness compared to J. procera and
P. falcatus. Moreover, AMF inoculation significantly (p<0.05) increased C. africana
growth, while little or no effect was found for J. procera and P. falcatus. Based on
our findings, we conclude AMF inoculation to be merited in some conditions
(selected tree species and planting sites). However, additional studies are required on
more tree species, AMF variables, and DAF.
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Keywords
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (Amf), C. Africana, Chilimo Forest, Dry Evergreen Afromontane Forests (Daf), Forest Restoration, J. Procera, P. Falcatus