Dominance, diversity, and niche breadth in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities

Classical theory identifies resource competition as the major structuring force of biotic communities and predicts that (i) levels of dominance and richness in communities are inversely related, (ii) narrow niches allow dense “packing” in niche space and thus promote diversity, and (iii) dominants a...

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Published in:Ecology (Durham) 2022-09, Vol.103 (9), p.e3761-n/a
Main Authors: Davison, John, Vasar, Martti, Sepp, Siim‐Kaarel, Oja, Jane, Al‐Quraishy, Saleh, Bueno, C. Guillermo, Cantero, Juan José, Chimbioputo Fabiano, Ezequiel, Decocq, Guillaume, Fraser, Lauchlan, Hiiesalu, Inga, Hozzein, Wael N., Koorem, Kadri, Moora, Mari, Mucina, Ladislav, Onipchenko, Vladimir, Öpik, Maarja, Pärtel, Meelis, Phosri, Cherdchai, Semchenko, Marina, Vahter, Tanel, Tedersoo, Leho, Zobel, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AM fungi
Arbuscular mycorrhizas
climatic zones
Community composition
community richness
Competition
Dominance
ecological niche
ecosystem type
Environmental Sciences
Fungi
metabarcoding
Niche breadth
niche volume
soil microbes
Stochastic processes
Stochasticity
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Summary:Classical theory identifies resource competition as the major structuring force of biotic communities and predicts that (i) levels of dominance and richness in communities are inversely related, (ii) narrow niches allow dense “packing” in niche space and thus promote diversity, and (iii) dominants are generalists with wide niches, such that locally abundant taxa also exhibit wide distributions. Current empirical support, however, is mixed. We tested these expectations using published data on arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal community composition worldwide. We recorded the expected negative relationship between dominance and richness and, to a degree, the positive association between local and global dominance. However, contrary to expectations, dominance was pronounced in communities where more specialists were present and, conversely, richness was higher in communities with more generalists. Thus, resource competition and niche packing appear to be of limited importance in AM fungal community assembly; rather, patterns of dominance and diversity seem more consistent with habitat filtering and stochastic processes.
ISSN:0012-9658
1939-9170
DOI:10.1002/ecy.3761