Impact of local forest composition on soil fungal communities in a mixed boreal forest

Nagati, Mélissande; Roy, Mélanie; Manzi, Sophie; Richard, Franck; Desrochers, Annie; Gardes, Monique; Bergeron, Yves

doi:10.1007/s11104-018-3806-3

Regular Article
Published: 08 September 2018

Impact of local forest composition on soil fungal communities in a mixed boreal forest

Mélissande Nagati ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2188-3872^1,2,
Mélanie Roy¹,
Sophie Manzi¹,
Franck Richard³,
Annie Desrochers²,
Monique Gardes¹ &
Yves Bergeron²

Plant and Soil volume 432, pages 345–357 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Aims

While fungi are key drivers of the carbon cycle and obligate symbionts of trees, the link between plant-fungal interactions and landscape vegetation changes has been largely overlooked. Our aim was to test whether a local difference in dominant tree species would shape the composition of soil fungi communities.

Methods

Fungal communities were described using next-generation DNA sequencing. Composite soil samples were collected in four paired sites (represented by one pure aspen stand and one pure spruce stand) and soil nutriments were measured.

Results

Of the more than 1119 OTUs, 31.6% were Ascomycota while 27.8% were Basidiomycota, 15% were ectomycorrhizal fungi whereas 19.7% were saprotrophic. Communities displayed high species turnover among forest types rather than differences in species richness. Among tested predictors, the dominant tree species explained around 11% of fungal community variation. pH and soil nutrients were also strong predictors of fungal communities.

Conclusions

Our study revealed strong correlations between dominant tree species and fungal communities at a local scale and raised questions regarding the impact of fungal communities on forest soil nutrient dynamics.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank Evick Mestre, Danielle Charon and Raynald Julien for their assistance in the field, Francine Tremblay for laboratory access, Lucie Zinger for assistance with bioinformatics and sequence analyses, Benjamin Durrington for editing the text and WFJ Parsons for English revision. We are grateful to our internal reviewer, Julien Demenois (CIRAD), for helpful advice and comments on a previous version of the manuscript. We are grateful to the Genotoul Bioinformatics Platform, Toulouse Midi-Pyrenees, for providing computing and storage resources. We also thank two anonymous reviewers and section editor Thomas W. Kuyper for their relevant and helpful comments on previous versions of the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by Mitacs Acceleration in collaboration with Norbord Inc. [IT066831], the UQAT-UQAM-NSERC Chair in sustainable forest management, the French Laboratory of Excellence project “TULIP” (ANR-10-LABX-41; ANR-11-IDEX-0002-02), and University Paul Sabatier for travel fellowships.

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Authors and Affiliations

Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique, UMR5174, Université Paul Sabatier – CNRS, 118 route de Narbonne, F-31062, Toulouse cedex, France
Mélissande Nagati, Mélanie Roy, Sophie Manzi & Monique Gardes
Chaire industrielle UQAM-UQAT en aménagement forestier durable, Institut de recherche sur les forêts, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, 445 Boul. de l’Université, Rouyn-Noranda, QC J9X 4E5, Canada
Mélissande Nagati, Annie Desrochers & Yves Bergeron
Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive UMR5175, 119 route de Mende, F-34293, Montpellier cedex 5, France
Franck Richard

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Mélissande Nagati
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Mélanie Roy
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Sophie Manzi
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Franck Richard
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Annie Desrochers
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Monique Gardes
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Yves Bergeron
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Correspondence to Mélissande Nagati.

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Nagati, M., Roy, M., Manzi, S. et al. Impact of local forest composition on soil fungal communities in a mixed boreal forest. Plant Soil 432, 345–357 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3806-3

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Received: 27 March 2018
Accepted: 29 August 2018
Published: 08 September 2018
Issue Date: November 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3806-3

Keywords

Black spruce-feather moss
Fungal diversity
Soil ecology
Picea mariana
Populus tremuloides
NGS