Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi communities from tropical Africa reveal strong ecological structure

Understanding the distribution and diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and the rules that govern AMF assemblages has been hampered by a lack of data from natural ecosystems. In addition, the current knowledge on AMF diversity is biased towards temperate ecosystems, whereas little is known about other habitats such as dry tropical ecosystems. We explored the diversity and structure of AMF communities in grasslands, savannas, dry forests and miombo in a protected area under dry tropical climate (Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique) using 454 pyrosequencing. In total, 147 AMF virtual taxa (VT) were detected, including 22 VT new to science. We found a high turnover of AMF with. 12% of VT present in all vegetation types. Forested areas supported more diverse AMF communities than savannas and grassland. Miombo woodlands had the highest AMF richness, number of novel VT, and number of exclusive and indicator taxa. Our data reveal a sharp differentiation of AMF communities between forested areas and periodically flooded savannas and grasslands. This marked ecological structure of AMF communities provides the first comprehensive landscape-scale evidence that, at the background of globally low endemism of AMF, local communities are shaped by regional processes including environmental filtering by edaphic properties and natural disturbance.