Mycorrhizal inoculation methods on Lutz spruce seedlings for afforestation of treeless landscape in Iceland

Seedling mortality is a great problem in afforestation in Iceland and is most severe in a treeless landscape. It is not uncommon for new afforestation areas to have 30 – 40 % mortality in seedlings in the first five years. One of the causes to this low survival is the lack of mycorrhizal fungi in th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Böðvarsdóttir, Hlíf
Other Authors: Solheim, Halvor, Óskarsson, Úlfur
Format: Master Thesis
Language:English
Published: Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2566136
Description
Summary:Seedling mortality is a great problem in afforestation in Iceland and is most severe in a treeless landscape. It is not uncommon for new afforestation areas to have 30 – 40 % mortality in seedlings in the first five years. One of the causes to this low survival is the lack of mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. In this study, effects of mycorrhizal inoculation treatments where examined on one summer old Lutz spruce (Picea x Lutzii) in two study sites in the South-West of Iceland. Methods were categorized into three treatments 0) Un-inoculated (control), 1) Inoculation in autumn and 2) inoculation in spring. The effect of winter storage on field performance was also examined. The storage methods were, outside winter storage in nursery and plant freezer storage. After one year in the field a subsample of the seedlings was examined. Three morphotypes were found, mycorrhizal root tips were counted and colonization was calculated. The analyses showed that inoculation treatments increased mycorrhizal colonization and generally increased root growth. Winter storage seemed to have negative effect on shoot growth, though not statistically explained seedlings stored in plant freezer seemed to have more dieback after the first winter. Mikil afföll hafa verið eftir gróðursetningu á flestum stöðum á landinu og eru afföllin mest þar sem plantað er í trjálaust mólendi. Það er ekki óalgengt að afföll plantna séu um 30 - 40 % fyrstu fimm árin eftir útplöntun. Ein af ástæðum þessara mikilla affalla er vöntun á gagnlegum rórarsveppi í jarðveginum. Í þessari rannsókn voru áhrif svepprótar smitunnar á sumar gamlar Sitka bastarðs plöntur (Picea x lutzii) metin á tveimur tilraunastöðum á suð-vestur landi. Smitunnar meðferðum var deil í þrennt 0) Ósmitaðar (kontról), 1) smitaðar að hausti, og 2) smitaðar að vori. Áhrif vetrargeymslu voru einnig könnuð. Yfirvetrunnar aðferðir voru: úti undir plasti í gróðrarstöð og í frysti geymslu. Einu ári eftir útplöntun var hluti af plöntunum rannsakaðar, svepprætur greindar og taldar og þéttleiki reiknaður. Út úr greiningu gagna kom í ljós að það var marktækur munur á þéttleika svepprótar eftir smitunnar meðferðum og að smitun jók rótar vöxt. Yfirvetrunn í frysti geymslu virtist hafa áhrif á vöxt plantnanna þar sem plöntur yfirvetraðar í frysti geymslu kólu meira eftir fyrsta veturinn en þær sem voru úti yfir veturinn, enn þetta var ekki hægt útskýra tölfræðilega. submittedVersion M-PV