Environmental factors affect the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community through the status of host plants in three patterns of Chinese fir in southern China

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play a critical role in promoting plant growth and sustainability of a healthy ecosystem. Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata), most extensively grown in southern China, form a symbiotic association with AM fungi. However, most studies have exclusively focused on AM fungi associated with different aged Chinese fir plantations. It remains poorly understood how different forest patterns of Chinese fir regulate the AM fungal community. Therefore, Chinese fir with three different patterns (i.e., monoculture plantation, mixed plantation, and natural forest) were studied to evaluate the AM fungal communities under different planting patterns through Illumina Miseq high-throughput sequencing. Overall, 96 AM fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified, belonging to genus Glomus, Archaeospora, Acaulospora, Diversispora, Gigaspora, and Scutellospora. However, monoculture showed the maximum number of AM fungal species (82) compared to mixed (55) and natural forests (73). Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis revealed significant AM fungal community differences among different forest patterns. Canonical correlation analysis and mantel test revealed that edaphic factors, including soil pH, TN, TP, TK, AN, AK, SOM, Mg and Mn had a significant effect in shaping the AM fungal communities. These findings could provide a microbial basis for local forest management and diversity protection.

Automated summary

The AM fungal communities in Chinese fir forests were found to vary with different forest patterns. Environmental factors such as soil pH and nutrient content significantly influenced the composition of AM fungal communities.