Print PagePrevious research highlights the importance of integrating soil ecological knowledge into restoration practices, and there is evidence that arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi benefit certain plant species in prairie restorations. This study investigates the impacts of AM fungal additions to an urban prairie installation along Chicago’s southern Lake Shore Drive. Four prairie plant species were used as ‘nurse’ plants, and inoculated with a mix of either commercially produced fungi of unknown ecotype or fungi species native to Chicago region prairies. The inoculated nurse plants were transplanted down the centerline of 27 study plots. Uninoculated seedlings of Sporobolus heterolepis, a grass native to Chicago area prairies, were used as ‘test’ plants and transplanted into the plots at varying distances from the nurse plants. Growth and survival of all plants were measured over two growing seasons.
Results/Conclusions
By the end of the first growing season, S. heterolepis grown in plots with native fungi nurses had higher survival and growth rates than did those grown in plots with commercial fungi nurses. Results from the second growing season indicate similar fungal treatment effects. This study suggests that prairie plants can access benefits from proximity to an AM fungi inoculation point within the first growing season. Response was strongest with native prairie fungi, suggesting that there are benefits to prairie plant growth and survival when introducing coevolved fungi instead of fungi of an unknown ecotype. Future research will continue to monitor the growth and survival of both nurse and test plants throughout the third growing season, and may assess the fungal community composition.
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