Abstract
BackgroundVegetation change in high latitude tundra ecosystems is expected to accelerate due to increased wildfire activity. High-severity fires increase the availability of mineral soil seedbeds, which facilitates recruitment, yet fire also alters soil microbial composition, which could significantly impact seedling establishment.ResultsWe investigated the effects of fire severity on soil biota and associated effects on plant performance for two plant species predicted to expand into Arctic tundra. We inoculated seedlings in a growth chamber experiment with soils collected from the largest tundra fire recorded in the Arctic and used molecular tools to characterize root-associated fungal communities. Seedling biomass was significantly related to the composition of fungal inoculum. Biomass decreased as fire severity increased and the proportion of pathogenic fungi increased.ConclusionsOur results suggest that effects of fire severity on soil biota reduces seedling performance and thus we hypothesize that in certain ecological contexts fire-severity effects on plant–fungal interactions may dampen the expected increases in tree and shrub establishment after tundra fire.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12898-016-0075-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Vegetation change in high latitude tundra ecosystems is expected to accelerate due to increased wildfire activity
For inoculated alder we found a decrease in total seedling biomass with increased fire severity (F(16, 1) = 4.976, P = 0.044) (Fig. 3a, b)
dark septate endophytes (DSE) are widespread and can be more frequent at high-latitudes than classical mycorrhizal fungi [53]. Their proportional decline across the fire-severity gradient suggests that they are sensitive to fire disturbance, as we previously showed for EM fungi in post-fire treeline and tundra ecosystems [34, 41]
Summary
Vegetation change in high latitude tundra ecosystems is expected to accelerate due to increased wildfire activity. In the last half century, warming in the Arctic and Subarctic has been correlated with the expansion of tundra shrubs into graminoid tundra [1] and the migration of forest into tundra in some locations [2]. These changes in vegetation could have strong positive feedbacks to the climate system, accentuating warming, through decreases in albedo, carbon storage, and increases in landscape flammability [3, 4]. Vegetation establishment can be influenced by soil biota, both mutualists and pathogens, which can affect both individual performance and plant species interactions.
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