Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Tree Communities Have Greater Soil Fungal Diversity and Relative Abundances of Saprotrophs and Pathogens than Ectomycorrhizal Tree Communities

Trees associating with different mycorrhizas often differ in their effects on litter decomposition, nutrient cycling, soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics, and plant-soil interactions. For example, due to differences between arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) tree leaf and root trai...

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Published in:Applied and environmental microbiology 2022-01, Vol.88 (1), p.e0178221-e0178221
Main Authors: Eagar, Andrew C, Mushinski, Ryan M, Horning, Amber L, Smemo, Kurt A, Phillips, Richard P, Blackwood, Christopher B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Arbuscular mycorrhizas
Availability
BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Biogeochemistry
Biotechnology & applied microbiology
Climate change
Climate studies
Community composition
Composition
Cycles
Dominance
Ecology
Ectomycorrhizas
Factorial experiments
Forests
Functional groups
Fungal functional diversity
Fungi
Hardwoods
MANE
Microbial Ecology
Microbiology
Mycorrhiza-associated nutrient economy
Mycorrhizae - genetics
Nitrification
Nitrogen
Nitrogen deposition
Nutrient availability
Nutrient cycles
Nutrient dynamics
Organic matter
Organic soils
Plant-microbe interactions
Relative abundance
Soil
Soil depth
Soil dynamics
Soil Microbiology
Soil organic matter
Soils
Spillover effects
Temperate forests
Temperate hardwood forests
Trees
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Summary:Trees associating with different mycorrhizas often differ in their effects on litter decomposition, nutrient cycling, soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics, and plant-soil interactions. For example, due to differences between arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) tree leaf and root traits, ECM-associated soil has lower rates of C and N cycling and lower N availability than AM-associated soil. These observations suggest that many groups of nonmycorrhizal fungi should be affected by the mycorrhizal associations of dominant trees through controls on nutrient availability. To test this overarching hypothesis, we explored the influence of predominant forest mycorrhizal type and mineral N availability on soil fungal communities using next-generation amplicon sequencing. Soils from four temperate hardwood forests in southern Indiana, United States, were studied; three forests formed a natural gradient of mycorrhizal dominance (100% AM tree basal area to 100% ECM basal area), while the fourth forest contained a factorial experiment testing long-term N addition in both dominant mycorrhizal types. We found that overall fungal diversity, as well as the diversity and relative abundance of plant pathogenic and saprotrophic fungi, increased with greater AM tree dominance. Additionally, tree community mycorrhizal associations explained more variation in fungal community composition than abiotic variables, including soil depth, SOM content, nitrification rate, and mineral N availability. Our findings suggest that tree mycorrhizal associations may be good predictors of the diversity, composition, and functional potential of soil fungal communities in temperate hardwood forests. These observations help explain differing biogeochemistry and community dynamics found in forest stands dominated by differing mycorrhizal types. Our work explores how differing mycorrhizal associations of temperate hardwood trees (i.e., arbuscular [AM] versus ectomycorrhizal [ECM] associations) affect soil fungal communities by altering the diversity and relative abundance of saprotrophic and plant-pathogenic fungi along natural gradients of mycorrhizal dominance. Because temperate hardwood forests are predicted to become more AM dominant with climate change, studies examining soil communities along mycorrhizal gradients are necessary to understand how these global changes may alter future soil fungal communities and their functional potential. Ours, along with other recent studies, id
ISSN:0099-2240
1098-5336
DOI:10.1128/AEM.01782-21