We investigated the impacts of the fairy-ring of Tricholoma matsutake on the dynamics of soil microflora and soil enzyme activities by grouping the soils around the fairy-ring of T. matsutake into four regions. The regions were grouped as `zone of dec...
We investigated the impacts of the fairy-ring of Tricholoma matsutake on the dynamics of soil microflora and soil enzyme activities by grouping the soils around the fairy-ring of T. matsutake into four regions. The regions were grouped as `zone of decayed mycorrhizae`, `zone of mycorrhizae for fruiting`, `zone of physiologically active mycorrhizae` and `zone free from mycorrhizal infection`. Soil fungi and actinomycetes were quite little at the soils around the fairy-ring of T. matsutake compared to those of general forest soils, and there were significant differences among the four regions. The soils with the mycelial cluster of T. matsutake showed about one third of microbial population compared to those in the zone free from mycorrhizal infection, which indicated that T. matsutake took a dominant position within the fairy-ring of the fungus. We could manifest that T. matsutake showed a distinctive characteristics of mycorrhizal fungus since the activities of dehydrogenase were significantly different between the zone of physiologically active mycorrhizae and the zone free from mycorrhizal infection. The dehydrogenase activity was the highest at the early season of fruiting around the fairy-ring of T. matsutake, while the acid-phosphatase activity increased from March to June followed by a slight decrease on August and peaked on October. This phenomenon made us infer that the vitality of T. matsutake be sustained after fruiting.