Bark coverage shifts assembly processes of microbial decomposer communities in dead wood.

ABSTRACT: Bark protects living trees against environmental influences but may promote wood decomposition by fungi and bacteria after tree death. However, the mechanisms by which bark determines the assembly process and biodiversity of decomposers remain unknown. Therefore, we partially or completely removed bark from experimentally felled trees and tested with null modelling whether assembly processes were determined by bark coverage and if biodiversity of molecularly sampled fungi and bacteria generally benefited from increasing bark cover. The community composition of fungi, wood-decaying fungi (subset of all fungi) and bacteria clearly separated between completely debarked, partly debarked and control trees. Bacterial species richness was higher on control trees than on either partly or completel

SUBMITTER: Hagge J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6790774 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature