title: Soil fungal communities of grasslands are environmentally structured at a regional scale in the Alps.
abstract: Studying patterns of species distributions along elevation gradients is frequently used to identify the primary factors that determine the distribution, diversity and assembly of species. However, despite their crucial role in ecosystem functioning, our understanding of the distribution of below-ground fungi is still limited, calling for more comprehensive studies of fungal biogeography along environmental gradients at various scales (from regional to global). Here, we investigated the richness of taxa of soil fungi and their phylogenetic diversity across a wide range of grassland types along a 2800 m elevation gradient at a large number of sites (213), stratified across a region of the Western Swiss Alps (700 km(2)). We used 454 pyrosequencing to obtain fungal sequences that were clustered into operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The OTU diversity-area relationship revealed uneven distribution of fungal taxa across the study area (i.e. not all taxa are everywhere) and fine-scale spatial clustering. Fungal richness and phylogenetic diversity were found to be higher in lower temperatures and higher moisture conditions. Climatic and soil characteristics as well as plant community composition were related to OTU alpha, beta and phylogenetic diversity, with distinct fungal lineages suggesting distinct ecological tolerances. Soil fungi, thus, show lineage-specific biogeographic patterns, even at a regional scale, and follow environmental determinism, mediated by interactions with plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Biophore Building, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pellissier
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Niculita-Hirzel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dubuis
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pagni
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Guex
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ndiribe
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Salamin
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Xenarios
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goudet
authors.forename: I R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guisan
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D005658:Fungi / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D006109:Poaceae / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D062206:Spatial Analysis; D013557:Switzerland
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal
keywords: 454 pyrosequencing; alpine grassland; elevation gradient; environmental gradients; phylogenetic diversity; plant-fungi interactions; soil fungal community