Dataset Information

Host-Specialist Dominated Ectomycorrhizal Communities of Pinus cembra are not Affected by Temperature Manipulation.

ABSTRACT: Ectomycorrhizae (EM) are important for the survival of seedlings and trees, but how they will react to global warming or changes in soil fertility is still in question. We tested the effect of soil temperature manipulation and nitrogen fertilization on EM communities in a high-altitude Pinus cembra afforestation. The trees had been inoculated in the 1960s in a nursery with a mixture of Suillus placidus, S. plorans and S. sibircus. Sampling was performed during the third year of temperature manipulation in June and October 2013. Root tips were counted, sorted into morphotypes, and sequenced. Fungal biomass was measured as ergosterol and hyphal length. The EM potential of the soil was assessed with internal transcribed spacers (ITS) clone libraries from in-growth mesh bags (MB). Temperature manipulation of ± 1 °C had no effect on the EM community. A total of 33 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified, 20 from the roots, 13 from MB. The inoculated Suillus spp. colonized 82% of the root tips, thus demonstrating that the inoculation was sustainable. Nitrogen fertilization had no impact on the EM community, but promoted depletion in soil organic matter, and caused a reduction in soil fungal biomass.

SUBMITTER: Rainer G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5770009 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Host-Specialist Dominated Ectomycorrhizal Communities of Pinus cembra are not Affected by Temperature Manipulation.

Rainer Georg G Kuhnert Regina R Unterholzer Mara M Dresch Philipp P Gruber Andreas A Peintner Ursula U

Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) 20150430 1

Ectomycorrhizae (EM) are important for the survival of seedlings and trees, but how they will react to global warming or changes in soil fertility is still in question. We tested the effect of soil temperature manipulation and nitrogen fertilization on EM communities in a high-altitude Pinus cembra afforestation. The trees had been inoculated in the 1960s in a nursery with a mixture of Suillus placidus, S. plorans and S. sibircus. Sampling was performed during the thi ...[more]

PMID: 29376899

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Project description:Forests and woodlands in the West African Guineo-Sudanian transition zone contain many tree species that form symbiotic interactions with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. These fungi facilitate plant growth by increasing nutrient and water uptake and include many fruiting body-forming fungi, including some edible mushrooms. Despite their importance for ecosystem functioning and anthropogenic use, diversity and distribution of ECM fungi is severely under-documented in West Africa. We conducted a broad regional sampling across five West African countries using soil eDNA to characterize the ECM as well as the total soil fungal community in gallery forests and savanna woodlands dominated by ECM host tree species. We subsequently sequenced the entire ITS region and much of the LSU region to infer a phylogeny for all detected soil fungal species. Utilizing a long read sequencing approach allows for higher taxonomic resolution by using the full ITS region, while the highly conserved LSU gene allows for a more accurate higher-level assignment of species hypotheses, including species without ITS-based taxonomy assignments. We detect no overall difference in species richness between gallery forests and woodlands. However, additional gallery forest plots and more samples per plot would have been needed to firmly conclude this pattern. Based on both abundance and richness, species from the families Russulaceae and Inocybaceae dominate the ECM fungal soil communities across both vegetation types. The community structure of both total soil fungi and ECM fungi was significantly influenced by vegetation types and showed strong correlation within plots. However, we found no significant difference in fungal community structure between samples collected adjacent to different host tree species within each plot. We conclude that within plots, the fungal community is structured more by the overall ECM host plant community than by the species of the individual host tree that each sample was collected from.

Project description:BackgroundIn Europe, Pinus cembra forests cover subalpine and alpine areas and they are of high conservational and ecological relevance. These forests experience strong seasonality with alternating snow-free and snow covered periods. Although P. cembra is known for mycorrhization and mycorrhizae usually involve fungi, plants and bacteria, the community compositions of fungi and bacteria and their associations in (sub-)alpine P. cembra forests remain vastly understudied. Here, we studied the fungal and bacterial community compositions in three independent (sub-)alpine P. cembra forests and inferred their microbial associations using marker gene sequencing and network analysis. We asked about the effect of snow cover on microbial compositions and associations. In addition, we propose inferring microbial associations across a range of filtering criteria, based on which we infer well justified, concrete microbial associations with high potential for ecological relevance that are typical for P. cembra forests and depending on snow cover.ResultsThe overall fungal and bacterial community structure was comparable with regards to both forest locations and snow cover. However, occurrence, abundance, and diversity patterns of several microbial taxa typical for P. cembra forests differed among snow-free and snow covered soils, e.g. Russula, Tetracladium and Phenoliphera. Moreover, network properties and microbial associations were influenced by snow cover. Here, we present concrete microbial associations on genus and species level that were repeatedly found across microbial networks, thereby confirming their ecological relevance. Most importantly, ectomycorrhizal fungi, such as Basidioascus, Pseudotomentella and Rhizopogon, as well as saprobic Mortierella changed their bacterial association partners depending on snow cover.ConclusionThis is the first study researching fungal-bacterial associations across several (sub-)alpine P. cembra forests. The poorly investigated influence of snow cover on soil fungi and bacteria, especially those mycorrhizing P. cembra roots, but also saprobic soil organisms, underlines the relevance of forest seasonality. Our findings highlight that the seasonal impact of snow cover has significant consequences for the ecology of the ecosystem, particularly in relation to mycorrhization and nutrient cycling. It is imperative to consider such effects for a comprehensive understanding of the functioning resilience and responsiveness of an ecosystem.

Dataset Information

Host-Specialist Dominated Ectomycorrhizal Communities of Pinus cembra are not Affected by Temperature Manipulation.

Publications

Host-Specialist Dominated Ectomycorrhizal Communities of <i>Pinus cembra</i> are not Affected by Temperature Manipulation.

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