title: Long-term warming alters richness and composition of taxonomic and functional groups of arctic fungi.
abstract: Fungi, including symbionts, pathogens and decomposers, play crucial roles in community dynamics and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite their ecological importance, the response of most arctic fungi to climate warming is unknown, so are their potential roles in driving the observed and predicted changes in tundra communities. We carried out deep DNA sequencing of soil samples to study the long-term effects of experimental warming on fungal communities in dry heath and moist tussock tundra in Arctic Alaska. The data presented here indicate that fungal community composition responds strongly to warming in the moist tundra, but not in the dry tundra. While total fungal richness was not significantly affected by warming, there were clear correlations among operational taxonomic unit richness of various ecological and taxonomic groups and long-term warming. Richness of ectomycorrhizal, ericoid mycorrhizal and lichenized fungi generally decreased with warming, while richness of saprotrophic, plant and animal pathogenic, and root endophytic fungi tended to increase in the warmed plots. More importantly, various taxa within these functional guilds followed opposing trends that highlight the importance of species-specific responses to warming. We recommend that species-level ecological differences be taken into account in climate change and nutrient cycling studies that involve arctic fungi.
authors.affiliation: Naturalis Biodiversity Center, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands Faculty of Science, Leiden University, PO Box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands jozsef.geml@naturalis.nl.
authors.forename: József
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Geml
authors.affiliation: Naturalis Biodiversity Center, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Luis N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Morgado
authors.affiliation: Naturalis Biodiversity Center, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands Faculty of Science, Leiden University, PO Box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tatiana A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Semenova
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Welker
authors.affiliation: HOMER Energy, 1790 30th St, Suite 100, Boulder, CO 80301 USA.
authors.forename: Marilyn D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: Naturalis Biodiversity Center, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands Faculty of Science, Leiden University, PO Box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands Plant Conservation and Population Biology, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31, Box 2437, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Smets
mesh_terms: D000413:Alaska; D000818:Animals; D001110:Arctic Regions; D001483:Base Sequence; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics*; D017753:Ecosystem; D057232:Global Warming; D059013:Microbial Consortia / Q000235:genetics; D038821:Mycorrhizae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000382:microbiology*; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal
keywords: Alaska; ITEX; ITS; Toolik Lake; climate change; metabarcoding