Urbanization and edge effects interact to drive mutualism breakdown and the rise of unstable pathogenic communities in forest soil.

ABSTRACT: Temperate forests are threatened by urbanization and fragmentation, with over 20% (118,300 km²) of U.S. forest land projected to be subsumed by urban land development. We leveraged a unique, well-characterized urban-to-rural and forest edge-to-interior gradient to identify the combined impact of these two land use changes-urbanization and forest edge creation-on the soil microbial community in native remnant forests. We found evidence of mutualism breakdown between trees and their fungal root mutualists [ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi] with urbanization, where ECM fungi colonized fewer tree roots and had less connectivity in soil microbiome networks in urban forests compared to rural forests. However, urbanization did not reduce the relative abundance of ECM fungi in forest soils;

SUBMITTER: Tatsumi C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10483667 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature