Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02312
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Experimental evidence of functional group-dependent effects of tree diversity on soil fungi in subtropical forests
Author Weißbecker, C.; Wubet, T. ORCID logo ; Lentendu, G.; Kühn, P.; Scholten, T.; Bruelheide, H.; Buscot, F.
Source Titel Frontiers in Microbiology
Year 2018
Department BZF; BOOEK; iDiv
Volume 9
Page From art. 2312
Language englisch
Supplements https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2018.02312/full#supplementary-material
Keywords BEF-China, experimental forest, forest biodiversity experiment, fungal functional groups, host preference, metagenomics, mycorrhizal fungi, soil
Abstract Deconvoluting the relative contributions made by specific biotic and abiotic drivers to soil fungal community compositions facilitates predictions about the functional responses of ecosystems to environmental changes, such as losses of plant diversity, but it is hindered by the complex interactions involved. Experimental assembly of tree species allows separation of the respective effects of plant community composition (biotic components) and soil properties (abiotic components), enabling much greater statistical power than can be achieved in observational studies. We therefore analyzed these contributions by assessing, via pyrotag sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) rDNA region, fungal communities in young subtropical forest plots included in a large experiment on the effects of tree species richness. Spatial variables and soil properties were the main drivers of soil fungal alpha and beta-diversity, implying strong early-stage environmental filtering and dispersal limitation. Tree related variables, such as tree community composition, significantly affected arbuscular mycorrhizal and pathogen fungal community structure, while differences in tree host species and host abundance affected ectomycorrhizal fungal community composition. At this early stage of the experiment, only a limited amount of carbon inputs (rhizodeposits and leaf litter) was being provided to the ecosystem due to the size of the tree saplings, and persisting legacy effects were observed. We thus expect to find increasing tree related effects on fungal community composition as forest development proceeds.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=20997
Weißbecker, C., Wubet, T., Lentendu, G., Kühn, P., Scholten, T., Bruelheide, H., Buscot, F. (2018):
Experimental evidence of functional group-dependent effects of tree diversity on soil fungi in subtropical forests
Front. Microbiol. 9 , art. 2312 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02312