Resilience of soil fungal community to hurricane Patricia (category 4)

Abstract

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of catastrophic events such as hurricanes. Soil microbial communities regulate geochemical cycles and other important ecosystem processes. How the hurricanes affect soil microbial communities and their function, however, is largely unknown. Our aim was to describe the impact of a category 4 hurricane (Patricia) on the soil fungal community structure and diversity in a Mexican tropical dry forest. Soil fungal community was inferred sequencing the ITS2 rDNA of composite soil samples taken in a time series ranging one year before and two years after the hurricane. OTU richness before the hurricane and in the first sampling after were comparable, however a 20–40% decrease in richness was observed in later sampling times. There were also taxonomic shifts associated with the disturbance, changing from a higher richness and abundance of Ascomycota fungi to greater dominance of Basidiomycota and Glomeromycota fungi post-hurricane. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plant pathogens diversity increased immediately after the hurricane but decreased in subsequent years. Approximately 7% of the soil community, primarily composed of saprotrophic fungi, persisted across the hurricane and the harsh seasonality of this ecosystem. Soil fungal community was affected by the hurricane but had function stability and resilience through years.