Effect of crop and grassland management on mycorrhizal fungi and soil aggregation

High rates of fertilizer application can disturb the Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) occurrence and life cycle in different tropical crop/ grassland systems compared to native vegetation. With the purpose of examine benefic AMF for crop production in experimental farms, the AMF community structure across different sites was studied. The native forest showed a greater diversity of AMF, followed by the grassland and cultivated crops. The number of AMF spores was greater in the natural site where ten genera of Glomeromycota, 14 species and four morphotypes were detected. The preserved native forest showed exclusive characteristics: higher amount of soil organic matter and higher macroaggregates and charcoal content than the samples of cultivated sites. This study showed variances in AMF communities as well as potential for AMF inoculant formulation.