permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Microbe management: application of mycorrhyzal fungi in 
sustainable agriculture
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:22:59 -0400
From: Joel Gruver <jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hello folks,

This review may also be of interest...

Joel

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Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment: Vol. 3, No. 10, pp. 533–539.

Microbe management: application of mycorrhyzal fungi in sustainable
agriculture
Miranda M Hart,a and Jack T Trevorsa

aDepartment of Environmental Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON,
Canada N1G 2W1 (mhart@uoguelph.ca)

There is an increasing need to find alternatives to high-intensity
agriculture. Intensively managed agrosystems are inefficient and lead to
reduced ecosystem functioning and environmental degradation. These effects
are predicted to magnify under the warmer, drier climate of the future.
Plant growth-promoting microbes promise to replace or supplement many
destructive, high-intensity practices. Symbiotic fungi, such as arbuscular
mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in particular, may be useful in agrosystems, but
their use has languished for decades. The benefits of using AMF are
undeniable, so why haven't they been incorporated into cropping systems?
Research shows that AMF functioning may be much more complex than previously
thought. Until we can elucidate their functional variation, and classify it
on a useful taxonomic level, practical applications of AMF cannot move
forward.

Joel Gruver
Dept of Soil Science
NC State University
jgruv@hotmail.com