Abstract/Summary

Spatial analysis techniques have recently become more common in ecological research. The application of these techniques to ecological problems has coincided with the development of molecular techniques for the study of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal communities. Through determination of the spatial properties of ECM fungal species’ distribution (i.e. patch size and shape, degree of clustering), it may be possible to derive much more information about these communities than can be obtained from simple species abundance and frequency data. For example, the use of spatial analysis may enable detection of species interactions and temporal changes in species distribution, as well as illustrating how environmental properties may relate to ECM fungal distribution. This review discusses the application of spatial ecology concepts to, and the issues surrounding, spatially explicit sampling of ECM fungal communities in relation to current trends in ECM community research, and suggests directions for future research.