Interactions between soil structure and fungi

By Karl Ritz, Iain M. Young. Mycologist, 2004

314 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The spatial organisation of soils is crucially important in affecting belowground function, and the associated delivery of ecosystem services. Fungi constitute an important part of the soil biomass. As well as playing key roles in nutrient cycling and biotic interactions, they are also intimately involved in soil structural dynamics. Fungi mediate the formation of soil structure at a variety of spatial scales via charge, adhesive and enmeshment mechanisms. They also produce large quantities of hydrophobic compounds that affect water infiltration properties of soils. Fungi can also destroy soil structure via decomposition of organic matter that affects soil aggregation. In turn, soil structure affects fungi. The filamentous growth-form of fungi is a very efficient space-filling structure well adapted for life in a spatially heterogeneous environment such as soil, but the labyrinthine pore network ultimately regulates how fungal mycelia grow through and function within the soil. The distribution of water within soils plays a crucial role in governing fungal development and activity, as does the spatial distribution of nutrient resources. This article reviews the continual interplay that occurs between soil structure and fungi, and discusses how self-organisation mechanisms may operate in the soil system.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Insect Science, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a7ec971cb60b3446baefd54b14aa9418c9a180f1

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

In Insect Science

In Plant Science

Citations in the corpus

Metals, minerals and microbes: geomicrobiology and bioremediation. (2010, unknown): “Direct biophysical effects have been shown where fungal hyphae attracted and oriented clay platelets because of surface charge phenomena, and acted as nucleation zones for the formation of narrow clay-lined channels (Ritz & Young, 2004).”
Role of Fungi in the Biomineralization of Calcite (2016, background): “Indeed, they are ubiquitous in most of the terrestrial environments where both their biomass and surface-to-volume ratio are enormous [19].”
The interplay between microbial communities and soil properties (2023, unknown): “…of the microbiome, among other drivers, as microorganisms can affect the spatial arrangement of soil particles, stabilize this architecture via their cells and metabolic products and lead to aggregate disin-tegration as they catabolize the binding agents that hold soil particles together 50 .”
Soil health in agricultural systems (2008, background): “These mechanisms occur across orders of magnitude in scale and involve processes of adhesion, coating, enmeshment, particle alignment and gross movement (Tisdall & Oades 1983; Lavelle et al. 1997; Ritz & Young 2004).”
Geomycology: biogeochemical transformations of rocks, minerals, metals and radionuclides by fungi, bioweathering and bioremediation. (2007, unknown): “Direct biophysical effects were shown in the microscale whereby fungal hyphae attracted and oriented clay platelets because of surface charge phenomena, and acted as nucleation zones in the formation of narrow clay-lined channels (Ritz & Young 2004).”
Bacterial-fungal interactions: ecology, mechanisms and challenges. (2018, background): “In the light of the extent of mycelial networks in soils (up to 102 m g-1, 103 m g-1 and 104 m g-1 length in arable, pasture and forest soils, respectively (Ritz and Young 2004; Joergensen and Wichern 2018), these can be considered to constitute ideal transport paths and scaffolds for bacteria.”
Untapped potential: exploiting fungi in bioremediation of hazardous chemicals (2011, background): “Fungi account for up to 75% of the soil microbial biomass (total soil microbial biomass is 50–1,000 μg per g dry weight or 2–45 t per Ha), and the length of hyphae can be up to 10 2 m per g, 10 3 m per g and 10 4 m per g for arable, pasture and forest topsoils, respectivel”
Understanding mechanisms of soil biota involvement in soil aggregation: A way forward with saprobic fungi? (2015, background): “As an example, the hyphal density and with it the enmeshment potential or amount of secreted fungal exudates could increase in nutrient rich soils or soil patches (Ritz and Young, 2004).”
Microbial Interaction with Clay Minerals and Its Environmental and Biotechnological Implications (2020, background): “The fungal hyphae growing through soil can act as the nucleation zones for clay minerals such as kaolinite, and this interaction, which also includes surface charge phenomena, can result in the formation of narrow channels (diameter ~2 μm) lined with clay platelets after the decomposition of hyphae ”