title: Ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi respond differently to long-term experimentally increased snow depth in the High Arctic.
abstract: Changing climate is expected to alter precipitation patterns in the Arctic, with consequences for subsurface temperature and moisture conditions, community structure, and nutrient mobilization through microbial belowground processes. Here, we address the effect of increased snow depth on the variation in species richness and community structure of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) and saprotrophic fungi. Soil samples were collected weekly from mid-July to mid-September in both control and deep snow plots. Richness of ECM fungi was lower, while saprotrophic fungi was higher in increased snow depth plots relative to controls. [Correction added on 23 September 2016 after first online publication: In the preceding sentence, the richness of ECM and saprotrophic fungi were wrongly interchanged and have been fixed in this current version.] ECM fungal richness was related to soil NO3-N, NH4-N, and K; and saprotrophic fungi to NO3-N and pH. Small but significant changes in the composition of saprotrophic fungi could be attributed to snow treatment and sampling time, but not so for the ECM fungi. Delayed snow melt did not influence the temporal variation in fungal communities between the treatments. Results suggest that some fungal species are favored, while others are disfavored resulting in their local extinction due to long-term changes in snow amount. Shifts in species composition of fungal functional groups are likely to affect nutrient cycling, ecosystem respiration, and stored permafrost carbon.
authors.affiliation: The University Centre in Svalbard, P.O. Box 156, NO-9171, Longyearbyen, Norway. sunilmundra@hotmail.com, sunil.mundra@unis.no.|Section for Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066, Blindern, NO-0316, Oslo, Norway. sunilmundra@hotmail.com, sunil.mundra@unis.no.
authors.forename: Sunil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mundra
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Rune
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Halvorsen
authors.affiliation: Section for Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066, Blindern, NO-0316, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Håvard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kauserud
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, Tartu University, 14A Ravila, 50411, Tartu, Estonia.|Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, SE 75236, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bahram
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum, University of Tartu, 14A Ravila, 50411, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Leho
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tedersoo
authors.affiliation: Center for Permafrost (CENPERM), Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, DK-1350, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Elberling
authors.affiliation: Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Institute of Biosciences Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, N-9037, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Elisabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: The University Centre in Svalbard, P.O. Box 156, NO-9171, Longyearbyen, Norway.
authors.forename: Pernille Bronken
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Eidesen
mesh_terms: D064751:Ammonium Compounds / Q000032:analysis*; D001110:Arctic Regions; D001483:Base Sequence; D057231:Climate Change; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D017753:Ecosystem; D038821:Mycorrhizae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D065946:Permafrost; D011188:Potassium / Q000032:analysis*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012914:Snow / Q000382:microbiology*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D064751:Ammonium Compounds; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D012987:Soil; D011188:Potassium
keywords: Arctic ecology; Illumina sequencing; Spitsbergen; Svalbard; climate change; fungal richness and communities; temporal variation; winter warming