Many Army land managers find stabilization, rehabilitation, and revegetation extremely difficult on disturbed lands in arid and semi-arid regions. Blackbrush, Coleogyne ramosissima, occurs as a landscape dominant in the ecotonal region between hot and cold deserts of the western United States. Soils in this region are often characterized by well-developed microbiotic soil crusts. Revegetation efforts using blackbrush have met with limited success, prompting speculation on possible interactions with soil microorganisms, including mycorrhizal fungi. A series of experiments conducted from 1993 to 1997 tested the effect of inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on the growth of young blackbrush seedlings under a variety of soil [...]
