Merryweather's
Underground
Pages

Biodiversity exists in profusion below ground as well as above, where we live. The above and below ground realms are intimately interlinked and interactive, yet we generally ignore everything that goes on beneath our feet, for good reasons: the soil is dark and its inhabitants are microscopic, invisible, inaccessible and inscrutable, therefore, apparently impossible. Here are some explanations of a little understood, universal natural phenomenon to inform and encourage people to start thinking subterranean(ly).

MYCORRHIZA MADE 'EASY'
Mycorrhiza is the symbiosis of soil fungi and plants in roots. It is as old as life on land (c. 500 million years), involves 90-95% of all plants and thousands of specialised fungi of many types and occurs with in all ecosystems throughout the world. Deny its ecological and economic importance if you will!

1. MYCORRHIZA - a brief introduction
My pre-lecture introductory document.
2. SECRETS OF THE SOIL
First published in Resurgence, April 2006. (N.B. the author is not responsible for the split infinitive.)
3. MEET THE GLOMALES (these days known as the Glomeromycota)
Text of an article published in British Wildlife 13:2 December 2001
4. GARDENING THE COUNTRYSIDE
Complete text of an article published in British Wildlife 18:4 April 2007 with the title PLANTING TREES
5. RHODODENDRON POISONS THE SOIL, DOESN'T IT?
(Includes some ecology of ericoid mycorrhizas)
6. LOCAL BLUEBELL MYCORRHIZA PROJECT
7. SOIL ECOLOGY POSTERS

MYCORRHIZA WEBSITES
IMS
International Mycorrhiza Society
MARK BRUNDRETT's
incomparable, exhaustive mycorrhiza website
MycorWeb