Effects of Soil Chemical Properties and Seasonality on Mycorrhizal Status of Prickly Pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) Planted in Hot Arid Steppe Rangelands

Mycorrhizal fungi are an essential component to consider for better management of soil fertility, particularly in degraded rangelands of drylands. The present article presents a field survey of colonization and intensity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) roots from young (5 years old) and old (more than 20 years) plantations. The results observed were explained by seasonality and edaphic factors. Prickly pear roots showed a mycorrhizal frequency (F%) up to 100% of colonization and a mycorrhizal intensity (M%) that may exceed 70%. According to ANOVAs, both F% and M% varied significantly between Prickly pear plantation ages, but only M% between seasons. The Generalized linear model showed that edaphic factors have no effect on the variation of F%. However the statistical model showed that M% were significantly influenced by active CaCO3, organic matter, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus contents and C/N. Our findings highlight the importance of mycorrhization in rehabilitation programs of degraded rangelands by prickly pear plantations in semiarid and arid lands, particularly during early plant ages and under environmental abiotic stresses such as climate and soil type.