Strong coupling of plant and fungal community structure across western Amazonian rainforests.

ABSTRACT: The Amazon basin harbors a diverse ecological community that has a critical role in the maintenance of the biosphere. Although plant and animal communities have received much attention, basic information is lacking for fungal or prokaryotic communities. This is despite the fact that recent ecological studies have suggested a prominent role for interactions with soil fungi in structuring the diversity and abundance of tropical rainforest trees. In this study, we characterize soil fungal communities across three major tropical forest types in the western Amazon basin (terra firme, seasonally flooded and white sand) using 454 pyrosequencing. Using these data, we examine the relationship between fungal diversity and tree species richness, and between fungal community composition and tree speci

SUBMITTER: Peay KG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3749505 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature