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Research article2020Peer reviewedOpen access

Regional-scale in-depth analysis of soil fungal diversity reveals strong pH and plant species effects in Northern Europe

Tedersoo, Leho; Anslan, Sten; Bahram, Mohammad; Drenkhan, Rein; Pritsch, Karin; Buegger, Franz; Padari, Allar; Hagh-Doust, Niloufar; Mikryukov, Vladimir; Gohar, Daniyal; Amiri, Rasekh; Hiiesalu, Indrek; Lutter, Reimo; Rosenvald, Raul; Rahn, Elisabeth; Adamson, Kalev; Drenkhan, Tiia; Tullus, Hardi; Jurimaa, Katrin; Sibul, Ivar;
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Abstract

Soil microbiome has a pivotal role in ecosystem functioning, yet little is known about its build-up from local to regional scales. In a multi-year regional-scale survey involving 1251 plots and long-read third-generation sequencing, we found that soil pH has the strongest effect on the diversity of fungi and its multiple taxonomic and functional groups. The pH effects were typically unimodal, usually both direct and indirect through tree species, soil nutrients or mold abundance. Individual tree species, particularlyPinus sylvestris,Picea abies, andPopulus x wettsteinii, and overall ectomycorrhizal plant proportion had relatively stronger effects on the diversity of biotrophic fungi than saprotrophic fungi. We found strong temporal sampling and investigator biases for the abundance of molds, but generally all spatial, temporal and microclimatic effects were weak. Richness of fungi and several functional groups was highest in woodlands and around ruins of buildings but lowest in bogs, with marked group-specific trends. In contrast to our expectations, diversity of soil fungi tended to be higher in forest island habitats potentially due to the edge effect, but fungal richness declined with island distance and in response to forest fragmentation. Virgin forests supported somewhat higher fungal diversity than old non-pristine forests, but there were no differences in richness between natural and anthropogenic habitats such as parks and coppiced gardens. Diversity of most fungal groups suffered from management of seminatural woodlands and parks and thinning of forests, but especially for forests the results depended on fungal group and time since partial harvesting. We conclude that the positive effects of tree diversity on overall fungal richness represent a combined niche effect of soil properties and intimate associations.

Keywords

island biogeography; community ecology; niche analysis; forest management; anthropogenic impact; ectomycorrhizal fungi; PacBio SMRT sequencing

Published in

Frontiers in Microbiology
2020, Volume: 11, article number: 1953

      SLU Authors

      Associated SLU-program

      SLU Plant Protection Network

      UKÄ Subject classification

      Soil Science

      Publication identifier

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01953

      Permanent link to this page (URI)

      https://res.slu.se/id/publ/107763