THE INFLUENCE OF THE HERBICIDE GLYPHOSATE ON INTERSPECIFIC INTERACTIONS BETWEEN 4 SOIL FUNGAL SPECIES

The influence of the herbicide glyphosate on two-way interactions betw een four fungal species was investigated on agar using direct oppositi on, volatile inhibitor and non-volatile inhibitor tests, and on barley straw using tests for competitive saprotrophic ability. The results i ndicated that glyphosate was often capable of shifting the direction o f two-species interactions, but there was little agreement between the different tests. Reanalysis of particle colonization data presented e arlier demonstrated that glyphosate frequently eliminated negative ass ociations between the same four species, possibly by acting as a resou rce. It is concluded that interactions between pairs of fungi can be i nfluenced directly by glyphosate (especially at high concentrations) a nd that this may influence soil fungal community structure.