Relationships between soil fungal and woody plant assemblages differ between ridge and valley habitats in a subtropical mountain forest.
Elucidating interactions of above-ground and below-ground communities in different habitat types is essential for understanding biodiversity maintenance and ecosystem functioning. Using 454 pyrosequencing of ITS2 sequences we examined the relationship between subtropical mountain forest soil fungal communities, abiotic conditions, and plant communities using correlation and partial models. Ridge and valley habitats with differing fungal communities were delineated. Total, saprotrophic and pathogenic fungal richness were significantly correlated with plant species richness and/or soil nutrients and moisture in the ridge habitat, but with habitat convexity or basal area of Castanopsis eyrei in the valley habitat. Ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungal richness was significantly correlated with basal area of C. eyrei and total EM plants in the ridge and valley habitats, respectively. Total, saprotrophic, pathogenic and EM fungal compositions were significantly correlated with plant species composition and geographic distance in the ridge habitat, but with various combinations of plant species composition, plant species richness, soil C : N ratio and pH or no variables in the valley habitat. Our findings suggest that mechanisms influencing soil fungal diversity and community composition differ between ridge and valley habitats, and relationships between fungal and woody plant assemblages depend on habitat types in the subtropical forest ecosystem.
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Cheng
C
Gao
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.|College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Nan-Nan
NN
Shi
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.|College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Liang
L
Chen
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.|College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Niu-Niu
NN
Ji
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.|College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Bin-Wei
BW
Wu
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.|College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Yong-Long
YL
Wang
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.|College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Ying
Y
Xu
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Yong
Y
Zheng
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
Xiang-Cheng
XC
Mi
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
Ke-Ping
KP
Ma
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.|College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Liang-Dong
LD
Guo
D044822:Biodiversity; D065928:Forests; D005658:Fungi / Q000502:physiology*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014329:Tropical Climate; D014934:Wood / Q000382:microbiology*
454 pyrosequencing; ITS2; composition; habitat type; plant-fungus relationship; richness; subtropical forest