ABSTRACT
There have been many reviews of the arbuscular mycorrhizal asso ciation and global climate change in the past ten years (Staddon and Fitter, 1998; Rillig and Allen, 1999; Fitter, Heinemeyer, and Staddon, 2000; Treseder and Allen, 2000; Staddon, Heinemeyer, and Fitter, 2002; Fitter et al., 2004). In contrast, relatively few research papers have been published on the subject. Roughly 40 papers have been published on the increase in atmospheric CO2 , fewer than ten on the increase in temperature, and fewer than ten on N deposition, UV-B radiation, or ozone effects. Fewer than half of those papers have di rect relevance to crop production and only a handful of those are field experiments. Almost everything that can be said at the moment has already been said in one way or another in previous reviews and little material is available for a discussion of what is specifically relevant to crop production. I must say that when I was first invited to write this chapter, I was going to decline. The main reason I accepted the job was to provide what had been missing in previous reviews, that is, to provide a clear idea of what is coming, to identify knowledge gaps, and to redefine the most pressing issues accordingly. In regard to the general biology of the arbuscular mycorrhizal association, Fitter’s re cently published review (Fitter et al., 2004) accomplishes that task nicely. One of the two main goals of this chapter is to attempt to focus on what is relevant to crop production.
