| Title | Do Fungal Symbionts of Salt Marsh Plants Affect Interspecies Competition? |
| Publication Type | Thesis |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Authors | Robertson-Rojas, Vanessa |
| Secondary Title | Environmental Science<br/>Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5579.<br/>OSU Libraries: Digital Open Access |
| Volume | M.S. |
| Pagination | 59 p. |
| University | Portland State University |
| City | Portland, Or. |
| Call Number | OSU Libraries: Digital Open Access |
| Keywords | Baltic rush = Juncus balticus, fungi, introduced species, nutrients, pH, Reed canary grass = Phalaris arundinacea, salinity, Salmon River Estuary, Saltmarsh, Soil, Tufted hairgrass = Deschampsia cespitosa, wetland restoration, wetland vegetation |
| Notes | In order to restore salt marshes, it is necessary to know more about their environments. One aspect of salt marsh vegetation is their fungal symbiotes. This Master’s thesis reports on a study of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and their relationships to three common marsh plants: Baltic rush, tufted hairgrass, and the invasive reed canary grass. Plants were removed from a high marsh in the Salmon River Estuary, along with soil core samples. Plants were grown in a greenhouse, inoculated with fungi from the marsh, and placed in several competition scenarios. “This experiment indicates that fungal inoculation may offer stress amelioration through photosynthetic pathway II to Juncus balticus and may have the opposite effect of non-native Phalaris arundinacea” (from the Abstract). The author goes on to suggest that in cases like this, when the fungi give more benefits to native species than to introduced species, commercial inoculants may be useful. This is a beginning for learning which fungi-marsh plant combinations are valuable for salt marsh restoration. PSU Dissertations and Theses Paper 5579. |
| URL | https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/33995 |
