Ectomycorrhizal fungi

Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) are soil fungi that sheathe tree root tips in a fungal mantle, mobilizing soil nitrogen for the tree in exchange for sugars.¹

Inputs

• A host tree root tip: only about 2% of vascular plant species form ectomycorrhizal associations, but most temperate and boreal forest trees do (e.g. beech, Douglas-fir, pine), accounting for roughly 60% of tree stems worldwide.¹

Outputs

• Nitrogen scavenged from soil organic matter (including chitin and mineral-bound proteins) and delivered to the host tree; ammonium uptake at the fungal mantle runs 10-60 times higher than at non-mycorrhizal root tips.¹

Type

• Mycorrhizal fungi

Functions

• Nutrient transport¹
• Soil building¹

Footnotes

1. Mycorrhizal symbiosis and the nitrogen nutrition of forest trees. PMC11384646 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵