Composition and diversity of the fungal community in the rhizosphere soil of halophytic vegetation in Ebinur Lake wetland.

Abstract

The Ebinur Lake wetland in Xinjiang is a typical wetland, comprising a desert ecosystem with rich soilmicrobial resources, especially soil fungi in the inter-rhizosphere regions of the wetland plants. Thisstudy aimed to clarify the diversity and community structures of the inter-rhizosphere soil fungi ofplants in areas of high salinity in the Ebinur Lake wetland and their correlations with environmentalfactors, as little is currently known on this topic. The diversity and differences in the communitystructures of fungi associated with 12 salt-tolerant plant species in the Ebinur Lake wetland wereinvestigated using 16S rRNA sequencing. Correlations between the fungi and environmental factors,specifically, the physiochemical characteristics of the soil, were evaluated. The results showed thatfungal diversity was highest in the rhizosphere soil of Haloxylon ammodendron, followed by H.strobilaceum. The dominant fungal groups were found to be Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, and thedominant genus was Fusarium. Redundancy analysis revealed significant associations between totalnitrogen, electrical conductivity, and total potassium in the soil and both the diversity and abundance ofthe fungi (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the abundance of fungi of all genera in the rhizosphere soil sampleswere found to be strongly correlated with environmental physicochemical factors such as availablenitrogen and phosphorus. These findings provide data and theoretical support for a betterunderstanding of the ecological resources of fungi in the Ebinur Lake wetland.