You have now arrived at the “Biodiversity Reserve of Mycorrhizal Fungi”, which are beneficial plant symbionts. These microorganisms, real living fossils dating back over 460 million years, risk extinction in agricultural soils due to the many harmful agricultural practices (ploughing, chemical fertilization and pesticide distribution).
In the soils of the Reserve there are 58 different species, belonging to 14 genera, the highest number ever recorded in the world on a single site
The Reserve is considered as one of the world’s “biodiversity hot spots” due to these precious symbionts
The great biodiversity of this site is due to the fact that it has remained uncultivated for many years and also to the particular Mediterranean environment, where species typical of temperate and sub-tropical climates coexist. Here, in fact, typical warm climate species have been identified, such as Gigaspora gigantea and Racocera fulgida, together with cold climate species, such as Cetraspora armeniaca, Glomus aureum and Glomus badium and species described only in Mediterranean environments, such as Ambispora granatensis and Diversispora clara.
These beneficial microorganisms live in symbiosis with the roots of most agricultural plants: cereals, including wheat, rice, corn, barley; leguminous crops such as beans, peas, alfalfa, clover; fruit trees, including citrus, apple, peach, vine and olive trees; vegetables such as tomato, potato, strawberry, lettuce, pepper, eggplant, and economically important species such as sunflower, cotton, coffee, cocoa, and rubber tree. They absorb minerals such as phosphorus, nitrogen, sulfur, potassium, calcium, copper and zinc from the soil and transfer them to plants. This takes place through the hyphae, a dense network of elongated cells that extends from the roots to the surrounding soil and can reach lengths of about 40 meters for each meter of root. In addition to increased growth, mycorrhized plants show a higher resistance to stress and a higher content of antioxidants that are important for health.
Mycorrhizal fungi are obligate symbionts and cannot massively reproduce without the host plant. The maintenance of their germplasm therefore occurs in ex-situ or in-situ collections:
- ex-situ manteinance takes place in the greenhouse together with the host plants or in-vitro in the laboratory and in sterile conditions
- in-situ manteinance is a long-term strategy aimed at safeguarding the biodiversity of mycorrhizal fungi and is represented by conservation, through the protection of the ecosystems where the symbionts are present. An example of this strategy is the Reserve you are looking at.