Soil fungal communities vary more with soil characteristics than tree diversity at a local scale

Abstract

Soil fungal communities vary spatially due to factors including variations in plant diversity and soil characteristics; however, the relative influences of these factors on composition and therefore function remain unclear. Small-scale variation in fungal communities may drive local variation in nutrient cycling and decomposition and may respond more to local factors compared with large climatic variations. Clarifying the roles of these factors can improve our predictions of soil fungal community and biogeochemical cycling responses to anthropogenic changes. Therefore, we examined relationships among abiotic and biotic factors and soil fungal communities associated with sapling and mature trees in a mixed-hardwood woodland. We also compared community composition and fungal enzymatic activity. Fungal community composition was most associated with spatial heterogeneity of soil characteristics, while sapling and mature tree species identity were poor predictors of community composition. Further, most of the compositional variation was unexplained by measured variables, suggesting stochasticity and other environmental characteristics may drive spatial variation in these communities. Additionally, enzymatic activity did not clearly correlate with fungal community composition. Overall, soil fungal communities and enzymatic activity adjacent to trees in this woodland are most likely influenced by soil characteristics and not plant species identity.