Abstract:

Soil pH is an important factor affecting the normal growth of plants. Excessive acid or alkali in soil will have a serious impact on plant growth and endanger the growth of food crops. China has a large population and requires enough arable land to plant food for people’s needs. However, a large amount of arable land is endangered by soil acidification and salinization. It is necessary to convert acidified and salinized soils into available arable land. How to improve soil pH has become a technical bottleneck for sustainable land use. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can form mycorrhizal structure with most plants on land, promoting nutrient uptake by plants, and secreting some secondary metabolites to regulate soil pH. In view of the good application prospect of AMF, this paper described the ability of AMF to improve host acid and alkali tolerance by increasing biomass, photosynthesis, antioxidant enzyme activity of host, and promoting plant nutrient uptake from soil; and elucidated the mechanism of AMF’s action in regulating the pH of the soil from the perspective of its ability to affect the plant secretion of secondary metabolites, the structure of the soil microbial community, the activity of the soil enzymes, the immobilisation of the nutrients in the soil, and the distribution of metals in the soil. At the same time, the application of AMF in the future was prospected, in order to improve soil quality effectively through mycorrhizal biotechnology, and to provide ideas for solving the problem of grain reduction caused by soil over-acid or over-alkali.

Key words: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, soil pH, bioremediation, salinate field, acidification