The influences of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on growth and mineral nutrition of plants grown in copper mine tailing
丛枝菌根真菌对铜尾矿上植物生长和矿质营养的影响

In a greenhouse pot experiment, the effects of single or mixture inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), Glomus mosseae and Glomus versiforme, on growth and mineral nutrition of white clover (Trifolium repens Linn.) and ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) growing singly or in mixture in copper tailing were investigated. The results indicated that, irrespective of inoculation treatments white clover had higher mycorrhizal colonization (around 25% root length colonized) among all plant combinations. Irrespective of the plant combination, mycorrhizal inoculation significantly increased shoot dry weight of clover plants, while had no significant influences on ryegrass. Accordingly, P concentrations were markedly increased while Cu concentrations were decreased by mycorrhizal inoculation for clover plants, but mycorrhizal effects were not significant for ryegrass. When growing in mixture, ryegrass showed competitive advantages against clover, as dry weights of ryegrass from mixed cropping were relatively higher than those from single cropping. This experiment demonstrated that AMF may play important roles in plant adaptation to copper mine tailing, and also in the revegetation of such harsh environment. However, it would be necessary to screen tolerant fungal species for revegetation purposes and to confirm the potential role of AMF in revegetation under field conditions.