4.5 Article

Scale dependency of ectomycorrhizal fungal community assembly processes in Mediterranean mixed forests

Journal

MYCORRHIZA
Volume 32, Issue 3-4, Pages 315-325

Publisher

SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00572-022-01083-4

Keywords

Ectomycorrhizal fungi; Community structure; Assembly processes; Environmental filtering; Biotic interactions; Mediterranean mixed forests

Funding

  1. Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) [CGL2015-69118-C2-2P]
  2. MINECO [BES-2016-078055]
  3. University of Jaen under the Plan
  4. [6-UJA]

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The assembly of ectomycorrhizal fungal communities is influenced by both deterministic and stochastic processes, with stochastic processes having a larger contribution in many cases. Selection strength decreases at smaller spatial scales, correlated with plant host identity and environmental factors.
The assembly of biological communities depends on deterministic and stochastic processes whose influence varies across spatial and temporal scales. Although ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi play a key role in forest ecosystems, our knowledge on ECM community assembly processes and their dependency on spatial scales is still scarce. We analysed the assembly processes operating on ECM fungal communities associated with Cistus albidus L. and Quercus spp. in Mediterranean mixed forests (Southern Spain), for which root tip ECM fungi were characterized by high-throughput sequencing. The relative contribution of deterministic and stochastic processes that govern the ECM fungal community assembly was inferred by using phylogenetic and compositional turnover descriptors across spatial scales. Our results revealed that stochastic processes had a significantly higher contribution than selection on root tip ECM fungal community assembly. The strength of selection decreased at the smallest scale and it was linked to the plant host identity and the environment. Dispersal limitation increased at finer scales, whilst drift showed the opposite pattern likely suggesting a main influence of priority effects on ECM fungal community assembly. This study highlights the potential of phylogeny to infer ECM fungal community responses and brings new insights into the ecological processes affecting the structure and dynamics of Mediterranean forests.

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