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Variation in forest soil fungal diversity along a latitudinal gradient

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Abstract

In forest ecosystems, plant communities shape soil fungal communities through the provisioning of carbon. Although the variation in forest composition with latitude is well established, little is known about how soil fungal communities vary with latitude. We collected soil samples from 17 forests, along a latitudinal transect in western China. Forest types covered included boreal, temperate, subtropical and tropical forests. We used 454 pyrosequencing techniques to analyze the soil communities. These data were correlated with abiotic and biotic variables to determine which factors most strongly influenced fungal community composition. Our results indicated that temperature, latitude, and plant diversity most strongly influence soil fungal community composition. Fungal diversity patterns were unimodal, with temperate forests (mid latitude) exhibiting the greatest diversity. Furthermore, these diversity patterns indicate that fungal diversity was highest in the forest systems with the lowest tree diversity (temperate forests). Different forest systems were dominated by different fungal subgroups, ectomycorrhizal fungi dominated in boreal and temperate forests; endomycorrhizal fungi dominated in the tropical rainforests, and non-mycorrhizal fungi were best represented in subtropical forests. Our results suggest that soil fungal communities are strongly dependent on vegetation type, with fungal diversity displaying an inverse relationship to plant diversity.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the following national research station for logistic support: Xishuangbanna Station for Tropical Rain Forest Ecosystem Studies (XSTRE), Ailao Shan Station for Forest Ecosystem Research Studies (ASSFERS), Shangri-la Alpine Botanic Garden, Gongga (Minya Konka) Station of Alpine Ecosystem, Qinling Huoditang Located Forest Ecosystem Station, Xijiang Tian Mountain Located Forest Ecosystem Station. We thank X. Tan, Y. Liu, Z. Fang, L. Hou, X. Wang, and W. Cui for assisting field sampling, Y. Fu for soil chemical analyses, O. C. Chan and D. A. Schaefer for designing laboratory analyses, Y. Tang, A. M. Jonathan, A. Peter, D. L. Zai, and Rhett Harrison for critical reviews of this manuscript. This study was supported by grants from Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China (973 Program No. 2012CB416904), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 90302013), Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan (2005C0056M), Wang K. C. Foundation, and grants (DEB-0620910, DEB-0218039) from U.S. National Science Foundation. The work was also partially funded by the CG Research Program 6: Forests, Trees and Agroforestry. ADNA sequence data are available via GenBank (accession no. KF411754 - KF412201).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 88 Xuefu Road, Kunming, 650223, China

    Ling-Ling Shi & Lu Qiao

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China

    Ling-Ling Shi & Lu Qiao

  3. Centre for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan, China

    J. W. Ferry Slik

  4. Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China

    Peter E. Mortimer & Jianchu Xu

  5. World Agroforestry Centre, East Asia, 132 Lanhei Road, Kunming, 650201, China

    Peter E. Mortimer & Jianchu Xu

  6. College of Forest Resources and Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, 59 Longpan Rd, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Xiao-Ming Zou

  7. Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies, University of Puerto Rico, P.O. Box 21910, San Juan, PR, 00931-1910, USA

    Xiao-Ming Zou

  8. Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, 90187, Umeå, Sweden

    Wen-Ting Feng

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  1. Ling-Ling Shi
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Shi, LL., Mortimer, P.E., Ferry Slik, J.W. et al. Variation in forest soil fungal diversity along a latitudinal gradient. Fungal Diversity 64, 305–315 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-013-0270-5

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