ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Disturbance
Volume 8 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2025.1574237
Paxillus involutus enhances drought resistance of Pinus sylvestris seedlings by improving photosynthetic rate and water use efficiency
Provisionally accepted- 1Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- 2University of Hasselt, Hasselt, Limburg, Belgium
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is an important tree species that is often regenerated through seedling establishment. The resistance of these seedlings to drought treatments and their recovery are essential to forest regeneration. The association with ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi such as Paxillus involutus has the potential to improve drought resistance and possibly recovery.Here, we conducted two experiments to evaluate the impact of P. involutus inoculation on growth and water use of pine seedlings under contrasting drought intensities. In the first experiment, EcM fungal-inoculated and non-inoculated seedlings were subjected to wellwatered (100% field capacitycontrol treatment) or low-watered conditions (10% field capacity for one weekdrought treatment), followed by a recovery phase in a semi-hydroponic cultivation system. In the second experiment, seedlings were initially subjected to well-watered or moderate water conditions (100% and 30% field capacity, respectively), followed by prolonged low-watered conditions (10% field capacity for one month), each followed by a recovery phase. In the first experiment, EcM fungal-colonized pine seedlings showed increased aboveground biomass, higher photosynthetic rates, water-use efficiency, and elevated nitrogen and phosphorus contents under low-water conditions. In the second experiment, a prolonged low-water regime reduced root colonization by the EcM fungus. During recovery, P. involutusinoculated seedlings had an increase in ammonium assimilation under well-watered conditions and appeared to recover more efficiently, in particular from prolonged low-water conditions, with higher chlorophyll production, possibly due to increased nutrient availability and/or fungal demand. Our results suggest that the benefits of P. involutus depend on both water regime and drought duration: a short-term low-water regime (10% field capacity for one week) enhances EcM benefits, while under a moderate water regime (30% field capacity) the fungal effect was not evident. We conclude that P. involutus can confer significant benefits to pine seedlings, Confidential: in review making it a valuable strategy for forest regeneration in temperate climates facing drought episodes.
Keywords: Ectomycorrhizae, drought, seedlings, Recovery, forests, Climate Change, drought resistance, Scots pine
Received: 10 Feb 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Declerck, Musella, Lalaymia, Verdonck, Colpaert and Ponette. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Stephan Declerck, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.