Hi David,

A really technical question that most of us, but not all, would have to look up the term just to know what you are talking about.

Since you seem to have some interest and back ground in this subject, what are your thoughts?

Dave

No such thing as global warming but pollution can have negative impact on mycorrhizae. Excessive use of synthetic fertiilizer, fungicide, and so on will also ruin them. I'm sure there are thousands of other chemicals that will have negative impact on SOIL BIOLOGY in some ways...

Untouched forests will always do much better no matter what the climate throws at them...

Yes, they will undoubtedly effect the fungi, but they may see a shift towards more heat-tolerant species.

Agreed, synthetic ferts and their salts are no good for them. As for heat, they live quite nicely in a warm (but not really cookin') compost heap, so I doubt that heat is a factor.

tj

That's always a word I can never spell. We used to sell it on the counter at a nursery I worked at in Oregon.

It's a beneficial bacteria that occurs naturally (and in a can) that exists between the nutrients and water in the soil that is the bridge the feeds the white-tipped feeder roots. It speeds up the process of nutrient uptake.

Dax

Yes, Dax, it's a fungus that spreads out in a hairlike or fiberous form (sometimes for several meters if left undisturberbed). It digests organic material and converts it into a form plants can absorb. You may have seen it when digging. Around here it usually looks like a white stringy frost in the ground. If my fuzzy memory serves me correctly, I think I read somewhere that wood fibers and mycorrhizae in the soil combine for an excellant conifer bed (in general).

tj

Picea, in my opinion, yes pollutants could and most likely do have an effect on soil microbes and fungi. Heavy metals are toxic to most life, and changes wrought by acid rain, it seems to me, should have an effect on what species are able to live in a given area, to name two possibilities. The ever-increasing use of deicing salts on roads and parking lots-also ever-increasing-besides gradually making the Great Lakes saltier, destroys soil structure itself where it infiltrates into soil downstream of pavement. Very little, if anything, can grow in such soils for a long time. There's other nonpoint stuff too like oil, antifreeze, etc. It just depends on where it goes and what it does along the way.

+oM

Yeah right +om.

Dax