Strong effect of climate on ectomycorrhizal fungal composition: evidence from range overlap between two mountains.

ABSTRACT: Separating the effects of environmental factors and spatial distance on microbial composition is difficult when these factors covary. We examined the composition of ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi along elevation gradients on geographically distant mountains to clarify the effect of climate at the regional scale. Soil cores were collected from various forest types along an elevation gradient in southwestern Japan. Fungal species were identified by the internal transcribed spacer regions of the rDNA using direct sequencing. The occurrence of fungal species in this study was compared with a previous study conducted on a mountain separated by ∼550 km. In total, we recorded 454 EM fungi from 330 of 350 soil cores. Forty-seven fungal species (∼20% of the total excluding singletons) were shared betwe

SUBMITTER: Miyamoto Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4511943 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature