Priority effects of early successional insects influence late successional fungi in dead wood.

ABSTRACT: Community assembly is an integral process in all ecosystems, producing patterns of species distributions, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. Environmental filters and colonization history govern the assembly process, but their relative importance varies depending on the study system. Dead wood decomposition is a slow process, allowing decomposer communities to develop within a slowly changing substrate for decades. Despite this, there are few long-term studies of priority effects from colonization history in this ecosystem. In this study, we investigate the importance of insects in early succession of dead wood on the fungal community present one decade later. Sixty aspen trees were killed in two study landscapes, each tree producing one aspen high stump and log. Insects were sampled

SUBMITTER: Jacobsen RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4662308 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature