Survival Rate, Chemical and Microbial Properties of Oak Seedlings Planted with or without Oak Forest Soils in a Black Locust Forest of a Dryland

Native tree species are frequently unable to effectively grow in non-native cultivation scenarios. In the Loess Plateau, China, it is difficult find native oak (Quercus liaotungensis) seedlings black locust forests. Black an arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) tree, but ectomycorrhizal (ECM) tree. Plants highly depend on their symbiotic fungi take up water, nitrogen (N) and other nutrients. We hypothesized that forests would not provide ECM inoculum seedlings, limiting water nutrient uptake, which be improved by inoculum. Here, we (1) sowed seeds, with or without forest soils, (2) transplanted collected forests, (3) planted germinated autoclaved unautoclaved soils. measured survival growth rate for all three experiments, along chemical properties, root colonization. Oak seeds soils had higher colonization, leaf N concentrations rate, lower δ13C than Planting also increased of seedlings. Overall, our study suggested use improve uptake providing inoculum, resulting a high rate. Our implies method sowing was effortless compared transplanting wild/nursery