Dataset Information

Shift in fungal communities and associated enzyme activities along an age gradient of managed Pinus sylvestris stands.

ABSTRACT: Forestry reshapes ecosystems with respect to tree age structure, soil properties and vegetation composition. These changes are likely to be paralleled by shifts in microbial community composition with potential feedbacks on ecosystem functioning. Here, we assessed fungal communities across a chronosequence of managed Pinus sylvestris stands and investigated correlations between taxonomic composition and extracellular enzyme activities. Not surprisingly, clear-cutting had a negative effect on ectomycorrhizal fungal abundance and diversity. In contrast, clear-cutting favoured proliferation of saprotrophic fungi correlated with enzymes involved in holocellulose decomposition. During stand development, the re-establishing ectomycorrhizal fungal community shifted in composition from dominance by Atheliaceae in younger stands to Cortinarius and Russula species in older stands. Late successional ectomycorrhizal taxa correlated with enzymes involved in mobilisation of nutrients from organic matter, indicating intensified nutrient limitation. Our results suggest that maintenance of functional diversity in the ectomycorrhizal fungal community may sustain long-term forest production by retaining a capacity for symbiosis-driven recycling of organic nutrient pools.

SUBMITTER: Kyaschenko J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5364365 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Shift in fungal communities and associated enzyme activities along an age gradient of managed Pinus sylvestris stands.

Kyaschenko Julia J Clemmensen Karina E KE Hagenbo Andreas A Karltun Erik E Lindahl Björn D BD

The ISME journal 20170113 4

Forestry reshapes ecosystems with respect to tree age structure, soil properties and vegetation composition. These changes are likely to be paralleled by shifts in microbial community composition with potential feedbacks on ecosystem functioning. Here, we assessed fungal communities across a chronosequence of managed Pinus sylvestris stands and investigated correlations between taxonomic composition and extracellular enzyme activities. Not surprisingly, clear-cutting had a negative effect on ect ...[more]

PMID: 28085155

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundGlobal warming and drying have markedly enhanced in most forests the risk of fires across the world, which can affect the taxonomic and functional composition of key tree-associated organisms such as ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. The present study was conducted to characterise the alterations in the extent of root ECM colonisation, the ECM fungal communities, and their exploration types (i.e., indicator of ECM soil foraging strategies) in regenerated pines within a burned site as compared with an unburned site (five years after the fire event) in the Forest District Myszyniec, Poland.MethodsTo assess the ECM fungal communities of burned and control sites, soil soil-root monoliths were collected from the study sites in September 2019. A total of 96 soil subsamples were collected for soil analysis and mycorrhizal assessment (6 trees × 2 sites × 4 study plots × 2 microsites (north and south) = 96 subsamples).ResultsThe percentage of root ECM colonisation was significantly lower in the burned site in comparison with the unburned (control) site. However, the ECM species richness did not differ between the control and burned sites. The identified ECM species in both sites were Imleria badia, Thelephora terrestris, Russula paludosa, R. badia, R. turci, R. vesca, Lactarius plumbeus, Phialocephala fortinii, and Hyaloscypha variabilis. The most frequent species in the burned and control sites were I. badia and T. terrestris, respectively. The relative abundances of contact, medium-distance smooth and long-distance exploration types in the burned site were significantly different from the control site, dominated by the medium-distance exploration type in both sites. The abundance of the long-distance exploration type in the burned site was markedly greater (27%) than that of the control site (14%), suggesting that the fire event had favoured this ECM foraging strategy. The results demonstrated that the fire led to reduced ECM colonisation of Scots pine trees in the burned site whereas the species richness was not affected, which can be attributed to degrees of fire-resistance in the ECM species, survival of ECM propagules in deeper soil layers, and/or continuous entry of spores/propagules of the ECM fungi from the adjacent forests via wind, water run-off or animals.

Project description:Understanding the response of biomass allocation in twigs (the terminal branches of current-year shoots) to environmental change is crucial for elucidating forest ecosystem carbon storage, carbon cycling, and plant life history strategies under a changing climate. On the basis of interspecies investigations of broad-leaved plants, previous studies have demonstrated that plants respond to environmental factors by allocating biomass in an allometric manner between support tissues (i.e., stems) and the leaf biomass of twigs, where the scaling exponent (i.e., slope of a log-log linear relationship, ?) is constant, and the scaling constant (i.e., intercept of a log-log linear relationship, log ?) varies with respect to environmental factors. However, little is known about whether the isometric scaling exponents of such biomass allocations remain invariant for single species, particularly conifers, at different altitudes and in different growing periods. In this study, we investigated how twig biomass allocation varies with elevation and period among Pinus hwangshanensis Hsia trees growing in the mountains of Southeast China. Specifically, we explored how twig stem mass, needle mass, and needle area varied throughout the growing period (early, mid-, late) and at three elevations in the Wuyi Mountains. Standardized major axis analysis was used to compare the scaling exponents and scaling constants between the biomass allocations of within-twig components. Scaling relationships between these traits differed with growing period and altitude gradient. During the different growing periods, there was an isometric scaling relationship, with a common slope of 1.0 (i.e., ? ? 1.0), between needle mass and twig mass (the sum of the total needle mass and the stem mass), whereas there were allometric scaling relationships between the stem mass and twig mass and between the needle mass and stem mass of P. hwangshanensis. The scaling constants (log ?) for needle mass vs. twig mass and for needle mass vs. stem mass increased progressively across the growing stages, whereas the scaling constants of stem mass vs. twig mass showed the opposite pattern. The scaling exponents (?) of needle area with respect to needle biomass increased significantly with growing period, changing from an allometric relationship (i.e., ? < 1.0) during the early growing period to a nearly isometric relationship (i.e., ? ? 1.0) during the late growing period. This change possibly reflects the functional adaptation of twigs in different growing periods to meet their specific reproductive or survival needs. At different points along the altitudinal gradient, the relationships among needle mass, twig mass, and stem mass were all isometric (i.e., ? ? 1.0). Moreover, significant differences were found in scaling constants (log ?) along the altitudinal gradient, such that species had a smaller stem biomass but a relatively larger needle mass at low altitude. In addition, the scaling exponents remained numerically invariant among all three altitudes, with a common slope of 0.8, suggesting that needle area failed to keep pace with the increasing needle mass at different altitudes. Our results indicated that the twig biomass allocation pattern was significantly influenced by altitude and growing period, which reflects the functional adaptation of twigs to meet their specific survival needs under different climatic conditions.

Dataset Information

Shift in fungal communities and associated enzyme activities along an age gradient of managed Pinus sylvestris stands.

Publications

Shift in fungal communities and associated enzyme activities along an age gradient of managed Pinus sylvestris stands.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets