Abstract
Abstract Foliar fungal species are diverse and colonize all plants, though whether forest tree species composition influences the distribution of these fungal communities remains unclear. Fungal communities include quiescent taxa and the functionally important and metabolically active taxa that respond to changes in the environment. To determine fungal community shifts along a tree species diversity gradient, needles of Norway spruce were sampled from trees from four mature European forests. We hypothesized that the fungal communities and specific fungal taxa would correlate with tree species diversity. Furthermore, the active fungal community, and not the total community, would shift along the tree diversity gradient. High-throughput sequencing showed significant differences in the fungal communities in the different forests, and in one forest, tree diversity effects were observed, though this was not a general phenomenon. Our study also suggests that studying the metabolically active community may not provide additional information about community composition or diversity.
Highlights
Diversity of species is considered beneficial for most ecosystems (Cardinale et al, 2012; Gamfeldt et al, 2015)
The overall aim of the study was to determine whether fungal communities associated with Norway spruce (Picea abies) needles correlate with variation in tree species richness along a tree species diversity gradient
Standardized plots of 30 Â 30 m were delimited within each forest, where different compositions of tree species were targeted to create a tree species diversity gradient with richness levels ranging from monoculture to three- (North Karelia, Finland), four(Ra^sca, Romania and Hainich, Germany) or five-species (Białowiez_a, Poland) mixtures and different tree species assemblages at each level of species richness (Table 1)
Summary
Diversity of species is considered beneficial for most ecosystems (Cardinale et al, 2012; Gamfeldt et al, 2015). As proposed by the insurance hypothesis, may maintain the overall integrity of a forest ecosystem by reducing this risk (Yachi and Loreau, 1999). Both foliar pathogens and endophytes may be affected by the tree diversity in the stand (Müller and Hallaksela, 1998; Hantsch et al, 2013; Nguyen et al, 2016), the mechanism for such an effect is not yet clear. Tree leaves and needles host a range of organisms, including fungi These foliar fungal species may have beneficial, antagonistic or no apparent impact on the tree (Carroll, 1988; Rodriguez et al, 2009). Given that foliar fungal communities respond to all of these factors, they might be expected to vary with the surrounding vegetation, this has not been studied in detail
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