Fungal diversity in the brown coniferous forest soils of Daxing'anling Mountains, Northeast China

Abstract

To explore the distribution of fungal community in soil of brown coniferous forest in Daxing'anling and its relationship with soil characteristics, soil fungal community structure and diversity in three forest types, light brown coniferous forest, grass brown coniferous forest, and typical brown coniferous forest, were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing technology. The relationship between soil fungal community and soil characteristics was analyzed by R and SPSS 17.0 software. The results showed that soil physical and chemical characteristics differed significantly across the three brown coniferous forests. A total of 111 species belonged to six phyla, 23 class, 46 orders, 74 families and 88 genera were recorded in this study. Ascomycetes and basidiomycetes were dominant phyla. There were significant differences in relative abundance of phyla among three forest types. There was no significant difference in the Ace and Chao1 diversity indices among three brown coniferous forests, whereas there were significant differences in the Shannon and Simpson indices. Results from canonical correlation analysis and correlation analysis showed that both α and β diversity were significantly correlated with soil moisture, soil pH, soil organic matter, soil total nitrogen, and soil total potassium. The results indicated that soil characteristics were important factors affecting soil fungal diversity of brown coniferous forest in Xing'an larch forest in Daxing'anling.