Table 1 Statistical analyses showing the effect of three factors, i.e., plant species, arbuscular mycorhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation, and salinity and their interactions with morphological (height, biomass), physiological (intensity and frequency of root colonization by AMF), and biochemical (fungal metabolic activity, chlorophyll and proline content) data collected on plants sampled 4 months after growth in saline stress conditions. SDH and DAB, intensity, and frequency of AMF colonization data were first transformed with an arcsin square function as described (Saint-Etienne et al. 2006), and then, an ANOVA and a post hoc Fisher’s LSD test were performed. Height, biomass, and chlorophyll and proline concentrations were analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis test followed by a Steel–Critchlow–Fligner test. Values were considered to be statistically significant at p < 0.05. Fungal metabolic activity was determined using the succinate dehydrogenase activity test (SDH) to reveal active AMF and the diaminobenzidine test (DAB) to reveal senescent AMF structures (Vierheilig et al. 2005)

From: Selection of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal strains to improve Casuarina equisetifolia L. and Casuarina glauca Sieb. tolerance to salinity