Abstract
Trees in forest ecosystems constantly interact with the soil fungal community, and this interaction plays a key role in nutrient cycling. The diversity of soil fungal communities is affected by both environmental factors and host tree species. We investigated the influence of both of these factors by examining the total fungal communities in the rhizospheric soil of climax tree species that have similar ecological roles (Carpinus cordata, an ectomycorrhizal [ECM] tree, and Fraxinus rhynchophylla, an arbuscular mycorrhizal [AM] tree) in temperate forests with continental climates of Mt. Jeombong, South Korea. Fungal communities were assessed by Illumina-MiSeq sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of environmental DNA, and comparing their environmental factors (season and soil properties). We found that soil fungi of the two forest types differed in terms of community structure and ecological guild composition. The total fungal community composition changed significantly with seasons and soil properties in the F. rhynchophylla forest, but not in the C. cordata forest. However, potassium and carbon were significantly correlated with fungal diversity in both forests, and a positive correlation was found only between symbiotrophs of C. cordata and the carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio. Thus, the effects of environmental factors on soil fungal communities depended on the host trees, but some factors were common in both forests. Our results indicate that individual tree species should be considered when anticipating how the fungal communities will respond to environmental change.
Highlights
Fungi in forests play key roles in plant diversity and productivity (Van Der Heijden et al, 2008)
Several shrubs belonging to Ericaceae were found in each sampling site, but forests were composed of single tree species in each stand
Rhizospheric soil samples were collected in triplicate for each tree, from 0 to 10 cm soil layer that was close to root of the host tree, after removing surface litter
Summary
Fungi in forests play key roles in plant diversity and productivity (Van Der Heijden et al, 2008). There is a wide diversity of associations between fungi and plants categorized by how a fungus gets organic matter from plants – symbiotrophic, saprotrophic, and pathotrophic. Mycorrhizal fungi receive photosynthetic products from plant in exchange. Most terrestrial plants require at least one type of mycorrhizal association to properly grow and reproduce (Brundrett and Tedersoo, 2018). Saprotrophic fungi decompose organic matter and are involved in carbon cycling and nutrient mobilization in forests (Kramer et al, 2012; van der Wal et al, 2013), while pathotrophic fungi retrieve nutrients by harming living plants and can control plant populations (Nguyen et al, 2016). Each trophic mode can be divided to several guilds according to their ecological lifestyle (Tedersoo et al, 2014)
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