USE OF ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI IN ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION

During a perturbation, the loss of soil cover is usually accompanied by a loss of many of the soil physicochemical and biological properties that determine the establishment and productivity of plants. The reduction of the potential of mutualist microbial symbionts is among the main biological problems. Such microbial symbionts are key ecological factors in the nutrient cycle and in the maintenance of soil cover in natural ecosystems. In this category are the arbuscular micorrhyzal fungi (AMF). These fungi are used as tools for species propagation due to their beneficial effects on plant growth, and also as indicators of the recovery of some attributes of the ecosystem, such as biological interactions that are critical for the long term function of a restored ecosystem. In December 2005 a restoration essay was carried out in areas of dry forests affected by sand extraction, sowing native arboreal species that were subjected to different treatments. Five years afterwards, the state of the AMF communities in the lots where soil cover had been restored was compared to that found in parcels under natural succession with a similar restoration time (5 years). This will allow to know whether the restoration has had an effect on the recovery of an ecological attribute that in turn could reflect the recovery path of this ecosystem.