Mycorrhizally Enhanced Phytoremediation of Phosphorus (P) by Riparian Buffer Vegetation: a Mesocosm Study of Uptake and Leaching
Objectives:
- Understand better the effect of mycorrhizae’s effect on plant uptake in low and high P soils. This investigates whether in high P soils plant and mycorrhizae symbiosis still functions to increase plant P uptake.
- Determine whether plant species matter. This is to find out whether distinct restoration plants respond differently when inoculated with mycorrhizae in soils with differing P levels.
- Find out how much P can be removed when harvesting woody biomass (through cyclical coppicing) grown in high and low P soils. This is important because ultimately the buffer function of a riparian area depends on how much P can be removed, not just intercepted.
- Find out whether leachate P is reduced in soils with mycorrhizae.
Pictures of spring -summer 2021 Mycorrhizal Bank Mesocosm study. From top left, across going down: mesocosm design & setup, greenhouse sign, Jess & Intern Mary at work , Intern Paige Sterling preparing mycorrhizal slides, Willow vs. Red Osier Dogwood roots, microplate pipetting for microbial counts, field soil drying for analysis, mycorrhizal microscopy
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