Ecological Archives E085-048-A1

Kazuhide Nara and Taizo Hogetsu. 2004. Ectomycorrhizal fungi on established shrubs facilitate subsequent seedling establishment of successional plant species. Ecology 85:1700–1707.

Appendix A. Photographs of vegetation patches in a volcanic desert on Mount Fuji, Japan.

(a) Vegetation patches are scattered like islands in a sea of scoria desert. An alpine dwarf willow, Salix reinii, is exclusively dominant as ectomycorrhizal host plants, and was found in 37 of 159 vegetation patches in the research quadrat. Although leaves of many other herbaceous and woody plant species have turned brown in middle October, the leaves of S. reinii remain green.

(b) Aerial photographs were taken from 7 m above each vegetation patch containing S. reinii using a digital camera attached at the end of a long pole. S. reinii initially colonizes at a periphery position of individual vegetation patches. The area covered by S. reinii, as indicated by a broken line of pale blue, increases with the willow growth year by year. Many ectomycorrhizal fungi have colonized on the established S. reinii shrubs and could facilitate seedling establishment of S. reinii and other ectomycorrhizal plant species.

 
 



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