Gabriel Grilli

Frugivoría y remoción de frutos ornitócoros en fragmentos del bosque chaqueño de Córdoba (Argentina)

Fil: Ponce, Analia Melisa. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Cordoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biologia Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Fisicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biologia Vegetal; Argentina

Mycorrhizal fungi affect plant growth: experimental evidence comparing native and invasive hosts in the context of forest fragmentation.

Forest fragmentation and biological invasions modify plant–mycorrhizal fungal interactions, but how these variations affect native and invasive plant vegetative and reproductive growth in a fragmented forest remain unknown. To test the effects of soil fungi from different forest fragment sizes on native and invasive plants, we conducted a greenhouse factorial experiment combining soil source (i.e., small and large forest fragments) and fungicide application (with and without fungicide) on two ruderal congeneric Euphorbia (E. acerensis and E. dentata, native and invasive, respectively). Soil fungi from small forest fragments promoted lower rates of mycorrhizal colonization than soil from large forest fragments in both plant species. In general, the source of soil fungi had no effect on vegetative and reproductive growth of both plant species. Fungicide application positively affected plant height and dry mass of the native host, while the fungicide application negatively affected height and neutrally affected growth of the invasive plant species. Reproductive traits were in general positively affected by fungicide application, although in some cases, they were dependent on soil source. Forest fragmentation might promote changes in soil conditions that negatively affect mycorrhizal colonization at levels without functional consequences for plant growth. However, landscape modifications that contribute to a more severe reduction in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization might certainly have important consequences on native and invasive plant growth.

Taxonomic and Functional Response of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi to Land Use Change in Central Argentina

It has been predicted that land use change will pose the main threat to biodiversity worldwide (Sala et al. 2000). A recent meta-analysis shows that, at local scale, conversion and degradation of habitats promote on average a global decline of 8.1 % of species richness and 10.1 % of abundance (Newbold et al. 2015). These human-mediated changes in biodiversity strongly affect ecosystem stability (Hautier et al. 2015). Given the importance of biodiversity on ecosystem functions and services, studies on the effects of land use on species assemblages are highly relevant in current global context.

Fungal diversity at fragmented landscapes: synthesis and future perspectives

Fungi are organisms with important roles in ecosystem functioning and services, but knowledge about how habitat fragmentation affect fungal diversity is biased by experimental approaches and it is spread in different trophic groups. We analyzed the empirical evidences of fungal diversity in fragmented landscapes, and proposed future perspectives for the study of these organisms under land use changes. Fungal diversity might be negatively affected by habitat fragmentation; however, this trend may differ in magnitude depending on fungal groups and their nutritional habits. In addition, due to the fact that fungal diversity at fragmented landscapes has been studied mainly through few indicators (e.g. isolation, area and edge effect); we propose incorporating the landscape structure and accurate spatio-temporal scales to the study of fungal diversity responses to fragmented landscapes. Together, this methodological refinement may allow improving knowledge on fungi when designing proper strategies for landscape management.

Retraction notice to “Fungal diversity is negatively affected by habitat fragmentation: a meta-analysis” [Current Opinion in Microbiology 37 (2017) 61-66]

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article that has already been published in , http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2017.03.015 has been withdrawn at the request of the editor and publisher. The publisher regrets that an error occurred which led to the premature publication of this paper. This error bears no reflection on the article or its authors. The publisher apologizes to the authors and the readers for this unfortunate error.