Evaluating soil-plant-microbe interactions as a technology for forest ecosystem restoration

加拿大的大多数原始森林已经被破坏，恢复工作已经产生了与原始森林外观和功能非常不同的系统。这是因为人们对调控森林发育阶段的机制知之甚少。越来越多的证据表明，生活在土壤中的生物多样性不仅在养分循环中发挥作用，而且与植物的相互作用非常密切。其中许多相互作用决定了植物的多样性和生产力，其中一些引起了生物技术公司的兴趣，它们一直在森林恢复工作中使用它们。在加拿大北部，许多受采矿做法影响的公顷种植了桤木，这种树与菌根真菌和固氮微生物同时形成共生关系。本项目旨在评估利用不同菌根接种的桤木修复工作对未受干扰森林系统典型植物的建立和生存的影响。我们的干预措施对生态系统功能的影响，包括潜在的温室气体（GHG）排放、污染物修复、碳固存以及土壤微生物和植物群落的生物多样性。我们将在我们的测量中使用分子和微气象技术将生物和物理化学成分联系起来。前者是表征微生物多样性和功能的理想方法，后者是表征温室气体排放的时间动态的理想方法。此外，我们将通过菌根网络和不同的碳库测量植物之间的养分转移，包括球囊素，一种由一些菌根真菌产生的化合物，对土壤结构和长期碳封存很重要。我们期望我们的研究结果将有助于加深对土壤-植物-微生物相互作用在恢复生态学中的作用及其缓解气候变化的潜力的理解。

Most old-growth forests in Canada have been destroyed and restoration efforts have produced systems that look and function very differently than the original. This is because the mechanisms that regulate the developmental stages of a forest are poorly understood. There is increasing evidence that the large diversity of organisms living in soils not only play roles in nutrient cycling but also interact very closely with plants. Many of these interactions determine the diversity and productivity of plants and some have attracted the interest of biotechnology companies, which have been using them in forest restoration efforts. In Northern Canada, many hectares affected by mining practices have been planted with alders, a tree that forms symbioses simultaneously with mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen fixing microbes. Our project aims to assess the impact of restoration efforts using alders colonized with different mycorrhizal inocula on the establishment and survival of plants typical of undisturbed forest systems. The effects of our interventions on ecosystem functioning, including potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contaminant remediation, carbon sequestration and soil microbial and plant community biodiversity will also be considered. We will link the biological and physicochemical components using molecular and micrometeorological techniques in our measurements. The former are ideal to characterize microbial diversity and function and the latter to characterize the temporal dynamics of GHG emissions. Additionally, we will measure nutrient transfer between plants through mycorrhizal networks and different pools of carbon, including glomalin, a compound produced by some mycorrhizal fungi that is important in soil structure and long-term C sequestration. We expect that our results will lead to increased understanding of the role of soil-plant-microbe interactions in restoration ecology and their potential to mitigate climate change.