Abstract
Background and Objectives: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play a crucial role in individual plant capability and whole ecosystem sustainability. Chinese fir, one of the most widely planted tree species in southern China, forms associations with AMF. However, it is still unclear what impacts thinning management applied to Chinese fir plantations has on the structure and diversity of soil AMF communities. This research attempts to bridge this knowledge gap. Materials and Methods: A thinning experiment was designed on different slope positions in Chinese fir plantations to examine the impacts of slope position and thinning intensity on colonization, diversity, and community composition of AMF. Results: Our research showed that the altitudinal slope position had significant effects on colonization, diversity, and community composition of AMF in Chinese fir plantations. In addition, the interaction between slope position and thinning intensity had significant effects on AMF diversity. Colonization by AMF on the lower slope position was significantly higher than on the upper slope position, while AMF diversity on the upper slope position was higher than on the middle and lower slope positions. Glomus was the most abundant genus in all slope positions, especially on the middle and lower slope positions. The relative abundance of Diversispora was significantly different among slope positions with absolute dominance on the upper slope position. Scutellospora was uniquely found on the upper slope position. Furthermore, soil Mg and Mn contents and soil temperature positively affected AMF community composition at the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) level. Conclusions: These findings suggested that slope position should be considered in the management of Chinese fir plantations. Furthermore, both chemical fertilization and AMF augmentation should be undertaken on upper hill slope positions as part of sustainable management practices for Chinese fir plantations.
Highlights
Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) is one of the most important fast-growing tree species with high production and outstanding timber quality that has been extensively planted in southern China to satisfy the increasing requirement for wood production [1]
To further confirm the remaining operational taxonomic unit (OTU) belonging to AM fungi, a phylogenetic tree was constructed in MEGA v7 (Kumar, Stecher, Li, Knyaz, and Tamura 2018) using the Kimura 2 parameter model with 1000 replicates, according to the representative sequences and reference sequences of Glomeromycotina downloaded from GenBank and MaarjAM [64]
Our research found that the slope position, but not thinning, had significant effects on the colonization, diversity, and community composition of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in Chinese fir plantations, as well as had interaction with thinning intensity on diversity
Summary
Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) is one of the most important fast-growing tree species with high production and outstanding timber quality that has been extensively planted in southern China to satisfy the increasing requirement for wood production [1]. Different AMF species and community composition play important roles in the performance of host plants, enriching soil microbial communities, promoting nutrient cycling, and improving the function of ecosystems. In this study, we chose Chinese fir plantations located in southeastern China to examine the impacts of slope position and thinning intensity on the occurrence, diversity, and community composition of AMF. We hypothesized that both slope position and thinning intensity would affect the colonization, diversity, Forests 2020, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW closely related to changing microclimate and edaphic factors. Thinning intensities; and (3) discover the most important topographical and edaphic factors affecting the AMF community compositions and distributions
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