Abstract
Soil fungi play vital roles in natural ecosystems, however, their community distribution patterns along different environmental gradients and ecological assembly processes remain unclear. In this study, Illumina MiSeq sequencing was used to investigate the soil fungal community structures of five different forest types along an elevational gradient, and a framework based on a null model was adopted to quantify the relative contribution of deterministic and stochastic ecological assembly processes. The results showed that the majority of soil fungal OTUs were derived from Zygomycota, Basidiomycota, and Ascomycota. Soil fungal community structure differed significantly among the five sites (P < 0.01), and the fungal α-diversity decreased as elevation increased (P < 0.01). The null model showed that the relative contribution of stochastic processes (37.78–73.33%) was higher than that of deterministic processes (26.67–62.22%) within the same forest type, while that of deterministic processes (35.00–93.00%) was higher than stochastic processes (7.00–65.00%) between forest types. These results suggest that forest soil fungal diversity decreased significantly with increasing elevation, and that deterministic processes may be key factors influencing soil fungal community assemblies among forest types. The results of this study provide new insight into soil fungal distribution patterns and community assembly processes in natural forest ecosystems.
Highlights
Soil microbial community structures and diversity along different environmental gradients have received a great deal of attention in recent years (Zhang et al, 2014; Geml et al, 2017; Liu et al, 2018)
To date, varying soil fungal α-diversity distribution patterns along elevational gradients have included monotonous decrease (Schinner and Gstraunthaler, 1981), a humpback pattern (Wang et al, 2015), or no significant pattern (Coince et al, 2014; Siles and Margesin, 2016; Liu et al, 2018). These findings indicate that soil fungal elevational distribution patterns are complex in natural ecosystems
Significant positive relationships were found between elevation and Soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration, elevation and total nitrogen (TN) concentration, elevation and available nitrogen (AN) concentration, and elevation and MAP
Summary
Soil microbial community structures and diversity along different environmental gradients have received a great deal of attention in recent years (Zhang et al, 2014; Geml et al, 2017; Liu et al, 2018). To date, varying soil fungal α-diversity (species richness or Shannon indices) distribution patterns along elevational gradients have included monotonous decrease (Schinner and Gstraunthaler, 1981), a humpback pattern (Wang et al, 2015), or no significant pattern (Coince et al, 2014; Siles and Margesin, 2016; Liu et al, 2018). These findings indicate that soil fungal elevational distribution patterns are complex in natural ecosystems. There is theoretical support for linkages between plant and soil microbial diversity, empirical evidence is inconclusive and somewhat uncoupled from alpha to beta diversity (Wardle, 2006; Millard and Singh, 2010; Gao et al, 2013; Prober et al, 2015)
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