Underground Explorers

The project aims to answer the following questions: (i) how are Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal (AMF) communities structured along native and impacted (degraded) areas of southern Amazon? (ii) AMF inhabit and colonize the Amazon leaf litter? (iii) how AMF communities differ between the soil and the adjacent litter? (iv) what is the degree of loss of diversity and functional groups between pristine and degraded areas - What is the impact of degradation? and (v) which and how soil and litter properties can influence the composition of AMF communities under different conservation conditions? The project represents a pioneering study on environmental sequencing of mycorrhizal fungi in soil and litter in the Amazon. The Amazon harbors one of the largest shares of global biodiversity, especially in plant species that can contribute to a huge diversity of microorganisms in the soil and litter. However, it is the Brazilian biome with the fewest diversity inventories for many groups of fungi, such as AMF, especially in the south portion of Amazon, where no work has been effectively published.