Soil fungal communities of grasslands are environmentally structured at a regional scale in the Alps.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_32F6B5977780
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Soil fungal communities of grasslands are environmentally structured at a regional scale in the Alps.
Journal
Molecular Ecology
Author(s)
Pellissier L., Niculita-Hirzel Hélène (co-first), Dubuis A., Pagni M., Guex N., Ndiribe C., Salamin N., Xenarios I., Goudet J., Sanders I.R., Guisan A.
ISSN
1365-294X (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0962-1083
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2014
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
23
Number
17
Pages
4274-4290
Language
english
Abstract
Studying patterns of species distributions along elevation gradients is frequently used to identify the primary factors that determine the distribution, diversity and assembly of species. However, despite their crucial role in ecosystem functioning, our understanding of the distribution of below-ground fungi is still limited, calling for more comprehensive studies of fungal biogeography along environmental gradients at various scales (from regional to global). Here, we investigated the richness of taxa of soil fungi and their phylogenetic diversity across a wide range of grassland types along a 2800 m elevation gradient at a large number of sites (213), stratified across a region of the Western Swiss Alps (700 km(2)). We used 454 pyrosequencing to obtain fungal sequences that were clustered into operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The OTU diversity-area relationship revealed uneven distribution of fungal taxa across the study area (i.e. not all taxa are everywhere) and fine-scale spatial clustering. Fungal richness and phylogenetic diversity were found to be higher in lower temperatures and higher moisture conditions. Climatic and soil characteristics as well as plant community composition were related to OTU alpha, beta and phylogenetic diversity, with distinct fungal lineages suggesting distinct ecological tolerances. Soil fungi, thus, show lineage-specific biogeographic patterns, even at a regional scale, and follow environmental determinism, mediated by interactions with plants.
Keywords
Biodiversity, DNA, Fungal/genetics, Fungi/classification, Fungi/genetics, Phylogeny, Poaceae/microbiology, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Soil Microbiology, Spatial Analysis, Switzerland
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
08/07/2014 14:57
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:18
Usage data