Mycorrhizal Dynamics in Ecological Systems

Description

Mycorrhizae are mutualisms between plants and fungi that evolved over 400 million years ago. This symbiotic relationship commenced with land invasion, and as new groups evolved, new organisms developed with varying adaptations to changing conditions. Based on the author's 50 years of knowledge and research, this book characterizes mycorrhizae through the most rapid global environmental changes in human history. It applies that knowledge in many different scenarios, from restoring strip mines in Wyoming and shifting agriculture in the Yucatan, to integrating mutualisms into science policy in California and Washington, D.C. Toggling between ecological theory and natural history of a widespread and long-lived symbiotic relationship, this interdisciplinary volume scales from structure-function and biochemistry to ecosystem dynamics and global change. This remarkable study is of interest to a wide range of students, researchers, and land-use managers.

Michael F. Allen is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology at the University of California, Riverside. He began his career studying mycorrhizae a half century ago, focusing on the physiology, ecology, evolution, and application of mycorrhizae across the Anthropocene. Michael was a founding editor of Mycorrhiza, President of the International Mycorrhizal Society, and Program Officer at the National Science Foundation. His previous publications include The Ecology of Mycorrhizae (Cambridge University Press, 1991) as well as 250 peer-reviewed research papers.