Hydrocarbon pollution: its effect on native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)

Communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) present in two hydrocarbon polluted soils from Argentina and Germany were analyzed by examining stained pieces of plant roots for degree of colonization and fungal structures. The numbers of AMF infective propagules were also analyzed and trap cultures were established from rhizospheric soils. Colonization by AMF was higher in plants grown in non-polluted soils than in both polluted areas. In addition proportion of arbuscles to vesicles was higher in plants grown in non-polluted soil than in those grown in hydrocarbon-polluted soils. This was consistent with larger populations of AMF propagules with a potential to colonize roots in non-polluted soils. Nevertheless, AMF propagules from polluted soils also had a high colonization capacity. Glomus aggregatum and G. mosseae were isolated and identified from both polluted and non-polluted soils.