In recent years the focus has been on finding procedures in agriculture to satisfy the food requirements for a growing population and new technologies whose main purpose is to protect the environment. Mycorrhiza represent a symbiotic system that involves terrestrial plants and soil fungi. It is a beneficial balanced process between plants and fungi, where the fungal hyphae colonize root of plants and increase the absorption process of nutrients. Fungi receive part of the metabolites produced through photosynthesis by plant. The purpose of this review is to raise awareness over the importance of mycorrhizal mechanisms in grassland ecosystems. Researches have shown that grassland biomes have the highest microbial and plant diversity, which stimulate the simultaneous presence of positive interactions in rhizosphere. Soil fungi interconnect all plant species and in addition improve their nutrition, with an increase in plant's ability to compete and reduction of abiotic stress. Mycorrhized plants benefit from better resistance against pathogens and limit the absorption of toxic substances, that the fungus stores in the vesicles. Besides the benefits to the plants, mycorrhizas are able to release nutrients in soil for the other microbial communities, including their sporocarps which are a favorite food source for edaphic micro- and macrophages. The reduced anthropic activity in grassland ecosystems facilitate the development of extensive hyphal networks, that connect directly and indirectly a large number of species. Diversity of symbiotic fungal species can also be accounted within plant biodiversity. The analysis of root symbiosis is necessary for a large number of actions in grassland: assessment of phytocoenosis stability with the understanding of mycoheterotrophy level for each species; future expansion of invasive plants in relation with secondary and tertiary successions; integrative models of plant – microorganism – climate interactions and survival potential in new climatic conditions. Therefore, mycorrhizae play a very important role in the good development of plants and a more detailed study is needed to understand mycorrhizal mechanisms because they can be a biological source of rehabilitation and improvement of grassland ecosystems.

nutrients, pathogens, symbiotic

biology

Presentation: oral