Pseudotsuga Menziesii

In the research article, Testing the link between community structure and function for ectomycorrhizal fungi involved in a global tripartite symbiosis, by Jennifer Walker, Hannah Cohen, Logan Higgins and Peter Kennedy, the relationship between Alnus trees, ectomycorrhizal (ECM) Fungi and Frankia bacteria was looked at. Alnus are a group of trees, which have a symbiosis with ECM fungi and nitrogen fixing bacteria. The bacteria helps the fungi get nutrients and the bacteria/fungi symbiosis helps to get nutrients to the tree. In this article they were particularity looking to see if ECM fungi communities that were in relation to Alnus rubra was different from Pseudotsuga menziesii in their abilities to get organic phosphorous and nitrogen. Ectomycorrhizal fungi are important for its host because it helps uptake of organic nutrients like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. However when the bacterial symbiotnt is present A. rubra is able to take up phosphorus better.
They collected 1280 samples. The samples were from soil samples within 1 meter of the base of the trees. These samples were collected within two different seasons throughout 2 sites from two different tree species. Once the samples were gathered they randomly sampled nine ECM fungal root tips and nine non-ECM fungal root tips per core sample. The root samples were looked at for acid phosphatase and luciene aminopeptidase activity. They then tested the root samples and later, in spring 2013, tested the soil health at all locations where the root samples were taken from. Then from there they analyzed the data