Wild vs. Commercial Arbuscular Mycorrhiza in Prairie Plants

Abstract

This experiment was conducted over 6 weeks on two different plant types. Each plant was put into one of four groups, all containing different levels of treatment regarding inoculation by mycorrhizae. The plants were either placed in sterilized soil or unsterilized soil, and then either inoculated with commercial mycorrhizae or wild type mycorrhizae or none at all. The leaf area of each pant was then measured weekly, as well as the overall biomass at the end of the experiment. Photosynthetic rate was also measured in the last week ok the experiment as well. In the end, the plants showed no significant difference between those that were inoculated with the commercial mycorrhizae and those that were just put in the unsterilized soil containing the wild type, although there were increases in biomass among those inoculated with any mycorrhizae as compared to those in the sterilized soil with none at all. Overall our hypothesis that the commercial mycorrhizae would benefit the plants better than the wild type was not supported by the data we collected, although there were still significant results for plants with mycorrhizae as compared to no mycorrhizae. The plants in the unsterilized soil showed a higher growth rate overall, but the experiment needed more time to be certain of what exactly is the cause of this.