Soil Type Has a Stronger Role than Dipterocarp Host Species in Shaping the Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Community in a Bornean Lowland Tropical Rain Forest.

ABSTRACT: The role that mycorrhizal fungal associations play in the assembly of long-lived tree communities is poorly understood, especially in tropical forests, which have the highest tree diversity of any ecosystem. The lowland tropical rain forests of Southeast Asia are characterized by high levels of species richness within the family Dipterocarpaceae, the entirety of which has been shown to form obligate ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal associations. Differences in ECM assembly between co-occurring species of dipterocarp have been suggested, but never tested in adult trees, as a mechanism for maintaining the coexistence of closely related tree species in this family. Testing this hypothesis has proven difficult because the assembly of both dipterocarps and their ECM associates co-varies with the sa

SUBMITTER: Essene AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5663695 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature