Nutrient limitations select for efficient ectomycorrhizal species in Europe's pine forests

Pierre Herinckx will give a seminar entitled "Nutrient limitations select for efficient ectomycorrhizal species in Europe's pine forests".

This seminar is organised by the ELI-V (Ecology and Biodiversity) division of the Earth and Life Institute.

Pierre Herinckx is a FNRS Aspirant at ULB (Bruxelles). His research aims to establish links between how ectomycorrhizal communities are structured along the European gradient of anthropogenic atmospheric nitrogen deposition and the mineral nutrition of trees. In a context of widespread eutrophication and an ongoing transition for European forests from nitrogen limitation to phosphorus limitation, he is particularly interested in the functional response (morphotypes and production of exoenzymes involved in the mobilization of nitrogen and phosphorus in organic forms) of ectomycorrhizal communities to the overall increase in mineral nitrogen availability, with the ultimate goal of linking this to the nutrient imbalances currently observed in trees.