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nafex - [NAFEX] Microflora and soil pH

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  • From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: NAFEX <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Microflora and soil pH
  • Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 20:20:12 -0700

I did some inquiring about the possibility of mycorrhizal fungi being able to affect the pH of soils. Dr. Robert Linderman, who has been working with soil microflora for 40 years or so had a very interesting reply:
"<x-tad-bigger> Interesting that you ask the question you did just now as I am writing another paper for a presentation in Denmark on the mycorrhizosphere.  As it turns out, the real story about weathering mineral rock to release nutrients is that bacteria live in association with the mycorrhizal fungal hyphae, and they are the source of acid that can etch the rock, solubilizing it for uptake by the mycorrhizal fungus and on to the plant.  Pretty neat, huh?  C. Y. Li, now retired from the Forest Service here in Corvallis, was the scientist who documented that fact.  He was able to isolate the bacteria from the hyphae and show that they could dissolve even marble with the acids they produced.  It is the bacterial association with the mycorrhizal fungal hyphae that perform many functions previously attributed to the mycorrhizae.  I call this phenomenon the “mycorrhizosphere effect”.  We have shown that the fungi selectively increase populations of bacteria that can do many things as part of a team, even help suppress diseases (the subject of my own research).  So I have described a new paradigm for the mycorrhizosphere wherein the host plant associates with the mycorrhizal fungi and the soil bacteria (certain ones) associate with the mycorrhizal fungus, making a marvelous microbial team that has been a winner for some 460 million years!!  By the way, we have shown that some of the bacteria can produce acids, some ammonia; both can change the pH around them.  I really do think it can account for the way ericoid mycorrhizal fungi function on blueberries; that is by changing the pH in order to allow their proteinases to break down organic substrates.  Those enzymes require very low pH to function at a maximum."

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<x-tad-bigger>-Lon J. Rombough</x-tad-bigger><x-tad-bigger>
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Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.


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