Abstract
More knowledge of community composition of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in ecosystems in relation to habitat type and land use intensity is needed. We studied AMF in 106 soil samples from pristine natural forests and a gradient of disturbance including semi-natural and intensively managed pastures of Terceira, Azores. Altogether, 42 spore morphotypes were detected from eight AMF families, revealing different fungal community structures among the three land use types. Spore density was highest in native forests and lowest in intensively managed pastures, but fungal richness was highest in semi-natural pastures and lowest in native forests. No significant difference occurred between intensively managed pastures and native forests. Members of Acaulosporaceae and Glomeraceae were dominant in native forests, while fungi from Gigasporaceae and Claroideoglomeraceae were most abundant in semi-natural and intensively managed pastures respectively, indicating family-based ecological preferences. Rarefaction analysis revealed that pastures supported more diverse AMF communities than native forests, because in high elevation pristine forests, a few rare species dominate. It is therefore likely that more species would be found with increasing survey effort. Further research is needed to clarify the influence of land use type on AMF diversity and distribution in remote islands, and the role of native AMF on soil ecosystem processes and the spread of exotic plants.
Highlights
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) comprise one of the most important groups of below ground biota (Jeffries et al 2003; Barea et al 2005)
NFT1 was dominated by A. lacunosa (RD = 27.13, FR = 100, importance value (IV) = 63.56) followed by Acaulospora sp.1 (RD = 15.65, FR = 100, IV = 57.82), while NFT2 was dominated by A. brasiliensis (RD = 31.40, FR = 100, IV = 65.70) and Glomeraceae sp. (RD = 30.38, FR = 100, IV = 50.90) (Table 1)
The current study showed that native forests presented the highest AMF spore density which is in accordance with other studies in natural communities (Öpik et al 2006; Dobo et al 2016; Birhane et al 2018)
Summary
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) comprise one of the most important groups of below ground biota (Jeffries et al 2003; Barea et al 2005). These obligate symbionts live in association with approximately 70% of vascular plants (Brundrett 2009). Several studies found that some factors such as soil characteristics and fertility (Minggui et al 2012; Xiang et al 2014), environmental conditions (Kivlin et al 2011; Davison et al 2015), plant community composition (Ӧpik et al 2010; Moora et al 2014) and agricultural activities can determine the local AMF communities (van der Gast et al 2011; Avio et al 2013; Köhl et al 2014) by influencing the structure and function of symbiosis
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