Acquisition of nutrients from organic resources by mycorrhizal autotrophic plants

Summary Evidence exists to suggest that mycorrhizal fungi are capable of producing enzymes allowing them to access carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus from complex organic resources in soil. This facility is mainly demonstrated in ectomycorrhizal and ericaceous endomycorrhizal fungi associated with highly organic soils and climatically stressed environments. These data support a direct nutrient cycling hypothesis proposed for tropical ectomycorrhizal forests. In terms of forest succession, the evidence agrees with a major contribution of the mycorrhizal symbiosis in late stages of the succession, where elemental cycling becomes increasingly more conservative and process rates limited by biotic factors. Here, tree growth benefits from direct nutrient cycling mediated by their mycorrhizal symbionts.