title: Higher fungal diversity is correlated with lower CO2 emissions from dead wood in a natural forest.
abstract: Wood decomposition releases almost as much CO2 to the atmosphere as does fossil-fuel combustion, so the factors regulating wood decomposition can affect global carbon cycling. We used metabarcoding to estimate the fungal species diversities of naturally colonized decomposing wood in subtropical China and, for the first time, compared them to concurrent measures of CO2 emissions. Wood hosting more diverse fungal communities emitted less CO2, with Shannon diversity explaining 26 to 44% of emissions variation. Community analysis supports a 'pure diversity' effect of fungi on decomposition rates and thus suggests that interference competition is an underlying mechanism. Our findings extend the results of published experiments using low-diversity, laboratory-inoculated wood to a high-diversity, natural system. We hypothesize that high levels of saprotrophic fungal biodiversity could be providing globally important ecosystem services by maintaining dead-wood habitats and by slowing the atmospheric contribution of CO2 from the world's stock of decomposing wood. However, large-scale surveys and controlled experimental tests in natural settings will be needed to test this hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 Jiaochang East Rd., Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China.
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China.
authors.forename: Douglas A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Schaefer
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China.
authors.forename: Weijie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Ohio University, Department of Biological Sciences, 107 Irvine Hall, Athens OH, 45701, USA.|University of Bucharest, Centre for Environmental Research (CCMESI), 1 N Balcescu Blvd., Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: Viorel D
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Popescu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 Jiaochang East Rd., Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China.
authors.forename: Chenxue
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 Jiaochang East Rd., Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 Jiaochang East Rd., Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China.
authors.forename: Chunying
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 Jiaochang East Rd., Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China.|School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk NR47TJ, UK.
authors.forename: Douglas W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D058448:Biota; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D002681:China; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D065928:Forests; D005658:Fungi / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D056186:Metagenomics; D014934:Wood / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide