Taxonomy and Ecology Of Inland Sand Dune ... - Mycorrhizae

2sand hills and the east sand hills. Thenorth sand hills can be divided into twogroups of active hills: one large (30 mhigh) and the other small (10 m high).Both north hills open into the wind, and,to some extent, are vegetationallycontrolled. Their depth is variable; fromthe west there is a very thin eoliandepositedsand layer that increases to30.5 m deep at the eastern margin(Ahlbrandt and Andrews, 1978).vegetation, and to soil abiotic factors areincluded.The vegetation present in the North Parksand dunes was described by Ahlbrandtand Andrews (1978). Since most of thedune vegetation is either herbs or shrubs,it was anticipated that most of thespecies would form vesicular arbuscularmycorrhizal (VAM) relationships.This study began with the hypothesisthat the biology and ecology of VAMfungi in inland sand dunes would besimilar to that on coastal sand dunes.My goals in this study were to determinethe mycorrhizal status of the sand duneplant species in North Park and toidentify the VAM fungi. Also, VAMfungal abundance and distribution inrelation to root depth, to above-ground