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Abstract
Progress towards understanding the extent to which mycorrhizal fungi are involved
in the mobilization of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from natural substrates is
reviewed here. While mycorrhiza research has emphasized the role of the symbiosis
in facilitation of capture of these nutrients in ionic form, attention has shifted
since the mid-1980s to analysing the mycorrhizal fungal abilities to release N and
P from the detrital materials of microbial faunal and plant origins, which are the
primary sources of these elements in terrestrial ecosystems. Ericoid, and some ectomycorrhizal
fungi have the potential to be directly involved in attack both on structural polymers,
which may render nutrients inaccessible, and in mobilization of N and P from the organic
polymers in which they are sequestered. The advantages to the plant of achieving intervention
in the microbial mobilization-immobilization cycles are stressed. While the new approaches
may initially lack the precision achieved in studies of readily characterized ionic
forms of N and P, they do provide insights of greater ecological relevance. The results
support the hypothesis that selection has favoured ericoid and ectomycorrhizal systems
with well developed saprotrophic capabilities in those ecosystems characterized by
retention of N and P as organic complexes in the soil. The need for further investigation
of the abilities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to intervene in nutrient mobilization
processes is stressed.