Commercial vs. Wild Mycorrhizae Effects on Biomass in Grass Species

Abstract

Premise of the study: We studied the different effects wild and commercial mycorrhizae had on grass species. The effects measured in this experiment were biomass and chlorophyll content. Both effects were measured on two grass species, Elymus Canadensis and Bromus inermis. We hypothesised that wild mycorrhizae would have more beneficial effects than the commercial mycorrhizae.

Methods: We made 4 treatment groups for our experiment with live inoculated, live non-inoculated, sterile inoculated, and sterile non-inoculated. We used rulers to measure stem height, scales to measure biomass, and a SPAD meter to measure chlorophyll.

Key Results: The data showed a significant difference in the chlorophyll and biomass, but there was not a significant difference in stem height.

Conclusions: Our hypothesis was not supported, the commercial mycorrhizae had more beneficial data in our experiment than the wild mycorrhizae.