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Ecology and Biogeography of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Belonging to the Family Gigasporaceae in La Gran Sabana Region (Guayana Shield), Venezuela

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Mycorrhizal Fungi in South America

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Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play a crucial role in ecosystem functioning by improving plant nutrition and resistance to environmental stress. In La Gran Sabana (LGS), a high plateau belonging to the Venezuelan Guayana Shield, with vegetation mainly composed by savannas intermixed with forests, shrublands, meadows and palm swamps, the AMF are determinant for plant survival due to the acidic, sandy and oligotrophic nature of its soils. In this region a high diversity of species of Gigasporaceae has been found and four species discovered there (Scutellospora spinosissima, S. crenulata, S. striata, S. tepuiensis), and some undescribed morphotypes, are considered endemic. In this work, some ecological and historical factors possibly involved with the restricted distribution of these species are evaluated. The elevated plant endemism and the particular edaphic conditions present in shrublands appear like the main drivers of the important diversification processes within Gigasporaceae detected in LGS. The monophyletic origin of some of these endemic Gigasporaceae suggests that their endemism could be the result of a process of in situ diversification combined with limitations for dispersal and/or establishment in other regions. These findings and the presence of a basal lineage for the family allows proposing LGS as an evolutionary hotspot for Gigasporaceae.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Grisel Velázquez, who prepared the map with the sampling locations and Pedro Borges, who kindly read the manuscript and offered helpful comments and English reviews. We also thank Parupa Scientific Station (PSS) for their logistic support in La Gran Sabana during the previous field work in which the information analyzed in this study was collected.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Ecología, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Caracas, Venezuela

    Milagros Lovera & Gisela Cuenca

  2. Centro de Agroecología Tropical, Universidad Nacional Experimental Simón Rodríguez (UNESR), Caracas, Venezuela

    Pablo Lau

  3. Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, UMR 5553 CNRS-Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France

    Jesús Mavárez

  4. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogotá, Colombia

    Jesús Mavárez

Authors
  1. Milagros Lovera
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  2. Gisela Cuenca
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  3. Pablo Lau
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  4. Jesús Mavárez
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

    Marcela C. Pagano

  2. Biological Sciences, National University of San Luis, Grupo MICODIF (Micología, Diversidad e Interacciones Fúngicas)/IMIBIO (Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas)-CONICET-CCT SL, San Luis, San Luis, Argentina

    Mónica A. Lugo

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Lovera, M., Cuenca, G., Lau, P., Mavárez, J. (2019). Ecology and Biogeography of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Belonging to the Family Gigasporaceae in La Gran Sabana Region (Guayana Shield), Venezuela. In: Pagano, M., Lugo, M. (eds) Mycorrhizal Fungi in South America. Fungal Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15228-4_8

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