Mycorrhizae can improve plant growth and drought tolerance by enhancing plant uptake of nutrients and water, which are important targets for biofilters, a common stormwater treatment system. This study evaluated the role of mycorrhizal inoculation on plant growth, photosynthetic efficiency and pollutant removal in two Australian plant species grown in stormwater biofilters. During the establishment period and column study, Ficinia nodosa showed over 80% mycorrhizal colonization, leading to a doubling of shoot and root biomass compared to the control, while Carex appressa showed less than 26% mycorrhizal colonization and no effect on shoot and root biomass. Columns planted with mycorrhizal-inoculated F. nodosa had 5% higher removal of total phosphorus and 10% higher removal of total nitrogen (Figure 5), phosphate (Figure 6), and cadmium (Table 3). Mycorrhizal colonization did not appear to affect plant stress during drought as indicated by similar photosynthetic efficiencies within species. Our results indicate that mycorrhizal inoculation can be highly successful in biofilters while increasing plant growth and nutrient removal, opening opportunities to further study the role of mycorrhizae in enhancing plant drought tolerance and pollutant removal in existing biofiltration systems.

菌根可以通过增强植物对养分和水的吸收来改善植物生长和耐旱性，这是生物过滤器（一种常见的雨水处理系统）的重要目标。本研究评估了菌根接种对雨水生物过滤器中生长的两种澳大利亚植物物种的植物生长、光合作用效率和污染物去除的作用。在定植期和柱状研究期间，Ficinia nodosa 的菌根定植率超过 80%，与对照相比，地上部和根部生物量翻了一番，而Carex apressa 的菌根定植率低于 26%，对地上部和根部生物量没有影响。种植有接种菌根的F. nodosa 的柱子总磷去除率高 5%，总氮（图 5）、磷酸盐（图 6）和镉（表 3）去除率高 10%。正如物种内相似的光合效率所表明的那样，菌根定植似乎不会影响干旱期间的植物胁迫。我们的结果表明，菌根接种在生物过滤器中可以非常成功，同时增加植物生长和养分去除，为进一步研究菌根在现有生物过滤系统中增强植物耐旱性和污染物去除的作用提供了机会。