GROWTH-RESPONSE OF PINUS-HALEPENSIS TO INOCULATION WITH PISOLITHUS-ARHIZUS IN A TERRACED RANGELAND AMENDED WITH URBAN REFUSE

A field experiment was carried out to evaluate the growth response of Pinus halepensis seedlings inoculated with Pisolithus arhizus and plan ted in a terraced rangeland amended with urban solid refuse. The appli cation of the organic amendment mediated a significant increase in soi l fertility and soil water content. Twenty seven months after planting seedling survival rates did not differ significantly among treatments and were above 95% in all cases. Growth of I! halepensis was signific antly (p<0.01) enhanced by the refuse application independently of the ir mycorrhizal status at the beginning of the experiment. A multiple r egression analysis including available soil P concentration and sorpti vity as independent variables explained up to 60% of the variance in p ine growth observed across treatments. Inoculation with Ii arhizus als o significantly (p<0.01) enhanced pine growth with repect to the contr ols grown in both amended and nonamended plots. It was conduded that t he combination of soil terracing, refuse amendment and I! arhizus inoc ulation significantly improved the performance of Pinus halepensis, an d this methodology could be successfully applied in afforestation prog rammes in semiarid and degraded sites.