Two-years of investigation revealed the inconsistency of seasonal dynamics of an ectomycorrhizal fungal community in Japanese cool-temperate forest across years

ABSTRACT Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal communities show temporal dynamics. Such dynamics have been mainly assessed with 1 year of investigations and have been related to the seasonal changes in environment. Recent study in sub-tropical region has revealed that stochastic temporal-based process can affect ECM fungal community, making the community of the same season different between years. The different community structures across years have also been observed in the Arctic region with a grass host. Nevertheless, in temperate zones, the effect of temporal-based processes and the consistency of seasonal dynamics have never been investigated. We conducted a 2-year root sampling in a cool temperate Fagus crenata forest to test whether the temporal variation of ECM fungal community composition could be explained by season. The explanation powers of temporal distance and environmental factors for the temporal dynamics of ECM fungal community were simultaneously evaluated. The variation in community structure was significantly explained by year but not by season, indicating that seasonal community structure differed between years. This difference in the community structure across years was partly explained by temporal factors. Our study implies that the temporal dynamics of ECM fungal communities in temperate forests are affected by temporal-based factors and can vary across years.

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Tundra Type Drives Distinct Trajectories of Functional and Taxonomic Composition of Arctic Fungal Communities in Response to Climate Change – Results From Long-Term Experimental Summer Warming and Increased Snow Depth

Frontiers in Microbiology ◽

10.3389/fmicb.2021.628746 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

József Geml ◽

Luis N. Morgado ◽

Tatiana A. Semenova-Nelsen

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Community Composition ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Snow Depth ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

The Arctic ◽

Fungal Community Composition ◽

Summer Warming ◽

Edaphic Variables

The arctic tundra is undergoing climate-driven changes and there are serious concerns related to the future of arctic biodiversity and altered ecological processes under possible climate change scenarios. Arctic land surface temperatures and precipitation are predicted to increase further, likely causing major transformation in terrestrial ecosystems. As a response to increasing temperatures, shifts in vegetation and soil fungal communities have already been observed. Little is known, however, how long-term experimental warming coupled with increased snow depth influence the trajectories of soil fungal communities in different tundra types. We compared edaphic variables and fungal community composition in experimental plots simulating the expected increase in summer warming and winter snow depth, based on DNA metabarcoding data. Fungal communities in the sampled dry and moist acidic tundra communities differed greatly, with tundra type explaining ca. one-third of compositional variation. Furthermore, dry and moist tundra appear to have different trajectories in response to climate change. Specifically, while both warming and increased snow depth had significant effects on fungal community composition and edaphic variables in dry tundra, the effect of increased snow was greater. However, in moist tundra, fungal communities mainly were affected by summer warming, while increased snow depth had a smaller effect and only on some functional groups. In dry tundra, microorganisms generally are limited by moisture in the summer and extremely low temperatures in winter, which is in agreement with the stronger effect of increased snow depth relative to warming. On the contrary, moist tundra soils generally are saturated with water, remain cold year-round and show relatively small seasonal fluctuations in temperature. The greater observed effect of warming on fungi in moist tundra may be explained by the narrower temperature optimum compared to those in dry tundra.

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Temporal dynamics of mycorrhizal fungal communities and co-associations with grassland plant communities following experimental manipulation of rainfall

10.32942/osf.io/t82ug ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Coline Deveautour ◽

Sally Power ◽

Kirk Barnett ◽

Raul Ochoa-Hueso ◽

Suzanne Donn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Composition ◽

Plant Community ◽

Plant Communities ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Plant Responses ◽

Rainfall Regimes

Climate models project overall a reduction in rainfall amounts and shifts in the timing of rainfall events in mid-latitudes and sub-tropical dry regions, which threatens the productivity and diversity of grasslands. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi may help plants to cope with expected changes but may also be impacted by changing rainfall, either via the direct effects of low soil moisture on survival and function or indirectly via changes in the plant community. In an Australian mesic grassland (former pasture) system, we characterised plant and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities every six months for nearly four years to two altered rainfall regimes: i) ambient, ii) rainfall reduced by 50% relative to ambient over the entire year and iii) total summer rainfall exclusion. Using Illumina sequencing, we assessed the response of AM fungal communities sampled from contrasting rainfall treatments and evaluated whether variation in AM fungal communities was associated with variation in plant community richness and composition. We found that rainfall reduction influenced the fungal communities, with the nature of the response depending on the type of manipulation, but that consistent results were only observed after more than two years of rainfall manipulation. We observed significant co-associations between plant and AM fungal communities on multiple dates. Predictive co-correspondence analyses indicated more support for the hypothesis that fungal community composition influenced plant community composition than vice versa. However, we found no evidence that altered rainfall regimes were leading to distinct co-associations between plants and AM fungi. Overall, our results provide evidence that grassland plant communities are intricately tied to variation in AM fungal communities. However, in this system, plant responses to climate change may not be directly related to impacts of altered rainfall regimes on AM fungal communities. Our study shows that AM fungal communities respond to changes in rainfall but that this effect was not immediate. The AM fungal community may influence the composition of the plant community. However, our results suggest that plant responses to altered rainfall regimes at our site may not be resulting via changes in the AM fungal communities.

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Water-Covered Depth with the Freeze–Thaw Cycle Influences Fungal Communities on Rice Straw Decomposition

Agriculture ◽

10.3390/agriculture11111113 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (11) ◽

pp. 1113

Author(s):

Xiaolong Lin ◽

Zongmu Yao ◽

Xinguang Wang ◽

Shangqi Xu ◽

Chunjie Tian ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Structure ◽

Rice Straw ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Straw Decomposition ◽

Freeze Thaw ◽

Fungal Community Structure ◽

Thaw Cycle ◽

Freeze Thaw Cycle ◽

Rice Straw Decomposition

Rice is a staple food for the world’s population. However, the straw produced by rice cultivation is not used sufficiently. Returning rice straw to the field is an effective way to help reduce labor and protect the soil. This study focused on the effect of water-covered depth with the freeze–thaw cycle on rice straw decomposition and the soil fungal community structure in a field in Northeast China. The field and controlled experiments were designed, and the fungal ITS1 region was tested by high-throughput sequencing for analyzing the fungal communities in this study. The results showed that water coverage with the freeze–thaw cycle promoted the decomposition of rice straw and influenced the fungal community structure; by analyzing the network of the fungal communities, it was found that the potential keystone taxa were Penicillium, Talaromyces, Fusarium, and Aspergillus in straw decomposition; and the strains with high beta-glucosidase, carboxymethyl cellulase, laccase, lignin peroxidase, and manganese peroxidase could also be isolated in the treated experiment. Furthermore, plant pathogenic fungi were found to decrease in the water-covered treatment. We hope that our results can help in rice production and straw return in practice.

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Uncovering fungal community composition in natural habitat of Ophiocordyceps sinensis using high-throughput sequencing and culture-dependent approaches

10.21203/rs.3.rs-28393/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Chuanbo Zhang ◽

Chao-Hui Ren ◽

Yan-Li Wang ◽

Qi-Qi Wang ◽

Yun-Sheng Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Structure ◽

High Throughput ◽

Fungal Community ◽

High Throughput Sequencing ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Bioactive Metabolites ◽

Fungal Community Structure ◽

Ophiocordyceps Sinensis ◽

Culturable Fungi ◽

Culture Dependent

Abstract Background The fungal communities inhabiting natural Ophiocordyceps sinensis play critical ecological roles in alpine meadow ecosystem, contribute to infect host insect, influence the occurrence of O. sinensis, and are repertoire of potential novel metabolites discovery. However, a comprehensive understanding of fungal communities of O. sinensis remain elusive. Therefore, the present study aimed to unravel fungal communities of natural O. sinensis using combination of high-throughput sequencing and culture-dependent approach. Results A total of 280,519 high-quality sequences, belonging to 5 fungal phyla, 15 classes, 41 orders, 79 families, 112 genera, and 352 putative operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained from natural O. sinensis using high-throughput sequencing. Among of which, 43 genera were identified in external mycelial cortices (EMC), Ophiocordyceps, Sebacinia, Archaeorhizomyces were predominant genera with the abundance of 95.86%, 1.14%, 0.85%, respectively. Total 66 genera were identified from soil microhabitat, Inocybe, Archaeorhizomyces, Unclassified Thelephoraceae, Tomentella, Thelephora, Sebacina, Unclassified Ascomycota, Unclassified Fungi were predominant genera with an average abundance of 53.32%, 8.69%, 8.12%, 8.12%, 7.21%, 4.6%, 3.08% and 3.05%, respectively. The fungal communities in external mycelial cortices (EMC) were significantly distinct from the soil microhabitat (Soil). Meanwhile, seven culture media that benefit for the growth of O. sinensis were used to isolate culturable fungi at 16 °C, resulted in 77 fungal strains isolated for rDNA ITS sequence analysis, belonging to 33 genera, including Ophiocordyceps, Trichoderma, Cytospora, Truncatella, Dactylonectria, Isaria, Cephalosporium, Fusarium, Cosmospora, Paecilomyces, etc.. Among all culturable fungi, Mortierella and Trichoderma were predominant genera of total isolates. Conclusions The significantly distinction and overlap in fungal community structure between two approaches highlight that integration of approaches would generate more information than either of them. Our finding is the first investigation of fungal community structure of natural O. sinensis by two approachs, provide new insight into O. sinensis associated fungi, and support that microbiota of O. sinensis is an untapped source for novel bioactive metabolites discovery.

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Diversity and Structure of Soil Fungal Communities across Experimental Everglades Tree Islands

Diversity ◽

10.3390/d12090324 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (9) ◽

pp. 324

Author(s):

Brianna K. Almeida ◽

Michael S. Ross ◽

Susana L. Stoffella ◽

Jay P. Sah ◽

Eric Cline ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Level ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Plant Pathogen ◽

Fungal Diversity ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Tree Islands ◽

Fungal Community Composition ◽

Everglades Tree Islands ◽

And Function ◽

Early Restoration

Fungi play prominent roles in ecosystem services (e.g., nutrient cycling, decomposition) and thus have increasingly garnered attention in restoration ecology. However, it is unclear how most management decisions impact fungal communities, making it difficult to protect fungal diversity and utilize fungi to improve restoration success. To understand the effects of restoration decisions and environmental variation on fungal communities, we sequenced soil fungal microbiomes from 96 sites across eight experimental Everglades tree islands approximately 15 years after restoration occurred. We found that early restoration decisions can have enduring consequences for fungal communities. Factors experimentally manipulated in 2003–2007 (e.g., type of island core) had significant legacy effects on fungal community composition. Our results also emphasized the role of water regime in fungal diversity, composition, and function. As the relative water level decreased, so did fungal diversity, with an approximately 25% decline in the driest sites. Further, as the water level decreased, the abundance of the plant pathogen–saprotroph guild increased, suggesting that low water may increase plant-pathogen interactions. Our results indicate that early restoration decisions can have long-term consequences for fungal community composition and function and suggest that a drier future in the Everglades could reduce fungal diversity on imperiled tree islands.

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Dominant Tree Species and Soil Type Affect the Fungal Community Structure in a Boreal Peatland Forest

Applied and Environmental Microbiology ◽

10.1128/aem.03858-15 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 82 (9) ◽

pp. 2632-2643 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Hui Sun ◽

Eeva Terhonen ◽

Andriy Kovalchuk ◽

Hanna Tuovila ◽

Hongxin Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Structure ◽

Community Composition ◽

High Throughput ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Tree Species ◽

High Throughput Sequencing ◽

Soil Layer ◽

Fungal Community Composition ◽

Content Type ◽

Boreal Peatlands

ABSTRACTBoreal peatlands play a crucial role in global carbon cycling, acting as an important carbon reservoir. However, little information is available on how peatland microbial communities are influenced by natural variability or human-induced disturbances. In this study, we have investigated the fungal diversity and community structure of both the organic soil layer and buried wood in boreal forest soils using high-throughput sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. We have also compared the fungal communities during the primary colonization of wood with those of the surrounding soils. A permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) confirmed that the community composition significantly differed between soil types (P< 0.001) and tree species (P< 0.001). The distance-based linear models analysis showed that environmental variables were significantly correlated with community structure (P< 0.04). The availability of soil nutrients (Ca [P= 0.002], Fe [P= 0.003], and P [P= 0.003]) within the site was an important factor in the fungal community composition. The species richness in wood was significantly lower than in the corresponding soil (P< 0.004). The results of the molecular identification were supplemented by fruiting body surveys. Seven of the genera ofAgaricomycotinaidentified in our surveys were among the top 20 genera observed in pyrosequencing data. Our study is the first, to our knowledge, fungal high-throughput next-generation sequencing study performed on peatlands; it further provides a baseline for the investigation of the dynamics of the fungal community in the boreal peatlands.

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Long-Term Monoculture Negatively Regulates Fungal Community Composition and Abundance of Tea Orchards

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy9080466 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (8) ◽

pp. 466 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Yasir Arafat ◽

Muhammad Tayyab ◽

Muhammad Umar Khan ◽

Ting Chen ◽

Hira Amjad ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Ph ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Cropping System ◽

Alpha Diversity ◽

Fungal Species ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Continuous Cropping ◽

Fungal Community Composition ◽

Continuous Cropping System ◽

Tea Plants

Continuous cropping frequently leads to soil acidification and major soil-borne diseases in tea plants, resulting in low tea yield. We have limited knowledge about the effects of continuous tea monoculture on soil properties and the fungal community. Here, we selected three replanted tea fields with 2, 15, and 30 years of monoculture history to assess the influence of continuous cropping on fungal communities and soil physiochemical attributes. The results showed that continuous tea monoculture significantly reduced soil pH and tea yield. Alpha diversity analysis showed that species richness declined significantly as the tea planting years increased and the results based on diversity indicated inconsistency. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) revealed that monoculture duration had the highest loading in structuring fungal communities. The relative abundance of Ascomycota, Glomeromycota, and Chytridiomycota decreased and Zygomycota and Basidiomycota increased with increasing cropping time. Continuous tea cropping not only decreased some beneficial fungal species such as Mortierella alpina and Mortierella elongatula, but also promoted potentially pathogenic fungal species such as Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium solani, and Microidium phyllanthi over time. Overall, continuous tea cropping decreased soil pH and potentially beneficial microbes and increased soil pathogenic microbes, which could be the reason for reducing tea yield. Thus, developing sustainable tea farming to improve soil pH, microbial activity, and enhanced beneficial soil microbes under a continuous cropping system is vital for tea production.

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Warming and disturbance alter soil microbiome diversity and function in a northern forest ecotone

FEMS Microbiology Ecology ◽

10.1093/femsec/fiaa108 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 96 (7) ◽

Author(s):

Michael E Van Nuland ◽

Dylan P Smith ◽

Jennifer M Bhatnagar ◽

Artur Stefanski ◽

Sarah E Hobbie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Structure ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Soil Microbiome ◽

Northern Forest ◽

Fungal Community Structure ◽

Open Canopy ◽

Ground Warming ◽

And Function ◽

Forest Ecotone

ABSTRACT The response to global change by soil microbes is set to affect important ecosystem processes. These impacts could be most immediate in transitional zones, such as the temperate-boreal forest ecotone, yet previous work in these forests has primarily focused on specific subsets of microbial taxa. Here, we examined how bacterial and fungal communities respond to simulated above- and below-ground warming under realistic field conditions in closed and open canopy treatments in Minnesota, USA. Our results show that warming and canopy disturbance shifted bacterial and fungal community structure as dominant bacterial and fungal groups differed in the direction and intensity of their responses. Ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungal communities with greater connectivity (higher prevalence of strongly interconnected taxa based on pairwise co-occurrence relationships) were more resistant to compositional change. Warming effects on soil enzymes involved in the hydrolytic and oxidative liberation of carbon from plant cell walls and nutrients from organic matter were most strongly linked to fungal community responses, although community structure–function relationships differed between fungal guilds. Collectively, these findings indicate that warming and disturbance will influence the composition and function of microbial communities in the temperate-boreal ecotone, and fungal responses are particularly important to understand for predicting future ecosystem functioning.

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Limited Effects of Variable-Retention Harvesting on Fungal Communities Decomposing Fine Roots in Coastal Temperate Rainforests

Applied and Environmental Microbiology ◽

10.1128/aem.02061-17 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 84 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Timothy J. Philpott ◽

Jason S. Barker ◽

Cindy E. Prescott ◽

Sue J. Grayston

Keyword(s):

Community Composition ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Fine Roots ◽

Fine Root ◽

Plant Litter ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Decomposition Rates ◽

Fungal Community Composition ◽

Variable Retention ◽

Variable Retention Harvesting

ABSTRACT Fine root litter is the principal source of carbon stored in forest soils and a dominant source of carbon for fungal decomposers. Differences in decomposer capacity between fungal species may be important determinants of fine-root decomposition rates. Variable-retention harvesting (VRH) provides refuge for ectomycorrhizal fungi, but its influence on fine-root decomposers is unknown, as are the effects of functional shifts in these fungal communities on carbon cycling. We compared fungal communities decomposing fine roots (in litter bags) under VRH, clear-cut, and uncut stands at two sites (6 and 13 years postharvest) and two decay stages (43 days and 1 year after burial) in Douglas fir forests in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Fungal species and guilds were identified from decomposed fine roots using high-throughput sequencing. Variable retention had short-term effects on β-diversity; harvest treatment modified the fungal community composition at the 6-year-postharvest site, but not at the 13-year-postharvest site. Ericoid and ectomycorrhizal guilds were not more abundant under VRH, but stand age significantly structured species composition. Guild composition varied by decay stage, with ruderal species later replaced by saprotrophs and ectomycorrhizae. Ectomycorrhizal abundance on decomposing fine roots may partially explain why fine roots typically decompose more slowly than surface litter. Our results indicate that stand age structures fine-root decomposers but that decay stage is more important in structuring the fungal community than shifts caused by harvesting. The rapid postharvest recovery of fungal communities decomposing fine roots suggests resiliency within this community, at least in these young regenerating stands in coastal British Columbia. IMPORTANCE Globally, fine roots are a dominant source of carbon in forest soils, yet the fungi that decompose this material and that drive the sequestration or respiration of this carbon remain largely uncharacterized. Fungi vary in their capacity to decompose plant litter, suggesting that fungal community composition is an important determinant of decomposition rates. Variable-retention harvesting is a forestry practice that modifies fungal communities by providing refuge for ectomycorrhizal fungi. We evaluated the effects of variable retention and clear-cut harvesting on fungal communities decomposing fine roots at two sites (6 and 13 years postharvest), at two decay stages (43 days and 1 year), and in uncut stands in temperate rainforests. Harvesting impacts on fungal community composition were detected only after 6 years after harvest. We suggest that fungal community composition may be an important factor that reduces fine-root decomposition rates relative to those of above-ground plant litter, which has important consequences for forest carbon cycling.

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Landscape-level DNA metabarcoding study in the Pannonian forests reveals differential effects of slope aspect on taxonomic and functional groups of fungi

10.1101/281337 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

József Geml

Keyword(s):

Functional Groups ◽

Community Composition ◽

Fungal Community ◽

Environmental Conditions ◽

Community Dynamics ◽

Fungal Communities ◽

Slope Aspect ◽

Fungal Community Composition ◽

Dna Metabarcoding ◽

Landscape Level

AbstractIn temperate regions, slope aspect is one of the most influential drivers of environmental conditions at landscape level. The effect of aspect on vegetation has been well studied, but virtually nothing is known about how fungal communities are shaped by aspect-driven environmental conditions. I carried out DNA metabarcoding of fungi from soil samples taken in a selected study area of Pannonian forests to compare richness and community composition of taxonomic and functional groups of fungi between slopes of predominantly southerly vs. northerly aspect and to assess the influence of selected environmental variables on fungal community composition. The deep sequence data presented here (i.e. 980 766 quality-filtered sequences) indicate that both niche (environmental filtering) and neutral (stochastic) processes shape fungal community composition at landscape level. Fungal community composition correlated strongly with aspect, with many fungi showing preference for either south-facing or north-facing slopes. Several taxonomic and functional groups showed significant differences in richness between north-and south-facing slopes and strong compositional differences were observed in all functional groups. The effect of aspect on fungal communities likely is mediated through contrasting mesoclimatic conditions, that in turn influence edaphic processes as well as vegetation. Finally, the data presented here provide an unprecedented insight into the diversity and landscape-level community dynamics of fungi in the Pannonian forests.

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