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Nitrogen and water addition regulate soil fungal diversity and co-occurrence networks

  • Soils, Sec 5 • Soil and Landscape Ecology • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

A field experiment was conducted to assess the role of nitrogen (N) and water addition in shaping soil fungal communities and co-occurrence networks in temperate grassland, northern China.

Materials and methods

We measured soil fungal and plant community compositions, and also soil properties including available N, phosphorus, potassium concentrations, soil pH, and soil moisture. Soil fungal co-occurrence networks were constructed using a random matrix theory–based network inference approach.

Results and discussion

Plant species richness was decreased by N addition but increased by water addition, whereas fungal richness was decreased by N addition. The fungal community composition was significantly changed by both N addition and water addition. Soil fungal α diversity and β diversity were explained by a combination of variations in plant species richness and plant functional composition, and also by changes in soil pH via the soil acidification pathway induced by N and water addition. The fungal co-occurrence networks were more complex and clustered under water addition than that in ambient precipitation.

Conclusions

Our results suggested that plant functional composition, plant species richness, and soil acidification should be incorporated into ecosystem models for predicting soil fungal communities under future climate changes in terrestrial ecosystems.

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Funding

This research was financially supported by The Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) program (2019QZKK0308), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0500702) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877046 and 41501265).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, People’s Republic of China

    Yongliang Chen

  2. Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology, School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, People’s Republic of China

    Zhuwen Xu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10085, People’s Republic of China

    Kai Feng, Wei Fu & Baodong Chen

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Kai Feng, Wei Fu & Baodong Chen

  5. Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Gaowen Yang

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  1. Yongliang Chen
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  2. Zhuwen Xu
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  3. Kai Feng
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Correspondence to Yongliang Chen.

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Chen, Y., Xu, Z., Feng, K. et al. Nitrogen and water addition regulate soil fungal diversity and co-occurrence networks. J Soils Sediments 20, 3192–3203 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02629-9

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