Disentangling the relative importance of spatio-temporal parameters and host selectivity in shaping AMF communities in temperate forests

Abstract Many woody and herbaceous plants in temperate forests cannot establish and survive in the absence of mycorrhizal associations. Here, we address and hierarchize how Glomeromycota, a group of soil-borne fungi, forming a ubiquitous type of mycorrhiza, varied in a temperate forest patch in Germ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inbioRxiv
Main Authors Grünfeld, Leonie, Mola, Magkdi, Wulf, Monika, Hempel, Stefan, Veresoglou, Stavros D
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 17.02.2021
Subjects
Community structure
Forests
Glomeromycota
Host plants
Soil microorganisms
Understory
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Abstract Many woody and herbaceous plants in temperate forests cannot establish and survive in the absence of mycorrhizal associations. Here, we address and hierarchize how Glomeromycota, a group of soil-borne fungi, forming a ubiquitous type of mycorrhiza, varied in a temperate forest patch in Germany with time, space, plant hosts but also the proximity to Glomeromycota-associating woody species. The communities of Glomeromycota in our study were non-random. We observed that space had a greater impact on fungal community structure than either time or proximity to Glomeromycota-associating trees but unlike host identity did not alter Glomeromycotan richness. The set of parameters which we addressed has rarely been studied together and we believe that the resulting ranking could ease prioritizing some of them to include in future surveys. Glomeromycota are crucial for the establishment of understory plants in temperate forests making it desirable to further explore how they vary in time and space. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes * ↵* email: sveresoglou{at}zedat.fu-berlin.de, phone number: +49 30 838 53172 * Declarations Funding: The project was funded from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft via the Project Metacorrhiza (VE 736/2-1) which was awarded to SDV. * Conflicts of interest/Competing interests:The authors declare no conflicts of interest * Availability of data and material: The data will be made available upon publication * Code availability: We attach the code in the supplement
DOI:10.1101/2021.02.16.431389