Biodiversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in roots and soils of two salt marshes.

The occurrence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) was assessed by both morphological and molecular criteria in two salt marshes: (i) a NaCl site of the island Terschelling, Atlantic Coast, the Netherlands and (ii) a K(2)CO(3) marsh at Schreyahn, Northern Germany. The overall biodiversity of AMF, based on sequence analysis, was comparably low in roots at both sites. However, the morphological spore analyses from soil samples of both sites exhibited a higher AMF biodiversity.