title: Does host plant richness explain diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi? Re-evaluation of Gao et al. (2013) data sets reveals sampling effects.
abstract: The generally positive relationship between biodiversity of groups of directly or indirectly interacting organisms is one of the most important ecological concepts (Gaston, 2000 Nature, 405, 220-227; Scherber C, Eisenhauer N, Weisser WW et al., 2010 Nature, 468, 553-556). In a recent issue of Molecular Ecology, Gao C, Shi N-N, Liu Y-X et al. (2013: 22, 3403-3414) reported that the richness of plants and ectomycorrhizal fungi is positively correlated both at local and at global scales. Here, we challenge these findings by re-analysis of data and ascribe the reported results to sampling effect and poor data compilation.
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum and Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 14A Ravila, Tartu, 50411, Estonia.
authors.forename: Leho
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tedersoo
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bahram
authors.forename: Ian A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Dickie
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000382:microbiology*; D038821:Mycorrhizae / Q000235:genetics*; D012988:Soil Microbiology
keywords: biodiversity; chimeric sequences; erroneous statistics; metastudy; sampling design; species richness; taxonomic sampling effect