Sardinia-fungi
Unravelling the fungal communities of five Sardinian soils of different Mediterranean land-use backgrounds
The Mediterranean area is a biodiversity hotspot that is increasingly threatened by intense land use. To achieve a balance between conservation and human development, a better understanding of the impact of land use on the underlying microbial communities is needed for this geographical region. We used massively parallel pyrosequencing of the ribosomal ITS region to characterize the fungal communities in five soils along a gradient of land-use intensification in a typical Mediterranean landscape: from natural Quercus forest through managed meadows to vineyards. We examined fungal diversity at the genus level and we found marked differences in the distribution of taxon assemblages among the different sites and communities. Ectomycorrhizal species were numerous in the natural sites but were nearly completely missing from the more anthropogenic sites; similarly, coprophilous fungi were common in anthropogenic sites but missing from the others. Lineages of relevance to viticulture were recovered from the vineyards but not from any other site. Our data suggest that the total number of fungal species is higher in natural soils than in soils subjected to land use, and we highlight a set of fungal species that serve as bio-indicators of the degree of land use of the site.