The cryptic lifestyle of most fungi necessitates molecular identification of the guild in environmental studies.Over the past decades, rapid development and affordability of molecular tools have tremendously improved insights of the fungal diversity in all ecosystems and habitats. Yet, in spite of the progress of molecular methods, knowledge about functional properties of the fungal taxa is vague and interpretation of environmental studies in an ecologically meaningful manner remains challenging. In order to facilitate functional assignments and ecological interpretation of environmental studies we introduce a user friendly traits and character database FungalTraits operating at genus and species hypothesis levels. Combining the information from previous efforts such as FUNGuild and Fun Fun together with involvement of expert knowledge, we reannotated 10210 and 151 fungal and Stramenopila genera, respectively. This resulted in a stand-alone spreadsheet dataset covering 17 lifestyle related traits of fungal and Stramenopila genera, designed for rapid functional assignments of environmental studies. In order to assign the trait states to fungal species hypotheses, the scientific community of experts manually categorised and assigned available trait information to 697413 fungal ITS sequences. On the basis of those sequences we were able to summarise trait and host information into 92623 fungal species hypotheses at 1% dissimilarity threshold.

The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are a globally distributed group of soil organisms that play critical roles in ecosystem function. However, the ecological niches of individual AM fungal taxa are poorly understood.

The benefits of the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis between plants and fungi are modulated by the functional characteristics of both partners. However, it is unknown to what extent functionally distinct groups of plants naturally associate with different AM fungi.We reanalysed 14 high-throughput sequencing data sets describing AM fungal communities associating with plant individuals (2427) belonging to 297 species. We examined how root-associating AM fungal communities varied between plants with different growth forms, photosynthetic pathways, CSR (competitor, stress-tolerator, ruderal) strategies, mycorrhizal statuses and N-fixing statuses.AM fungal community composition differed in relation to all studied plant functional groups. Grasses, C 4 and nonruderal plants were characterised by high AM fungal alpha diversity, while C 4 , ruderal and obligately mycorrhizal plants were characterised by high beta diversity. The phylogenetic diversity of AM fungi, a potential surrogate for functional diversity, was higher among forbs than other plant growth forms. Putatively ruderal (previously cultured) AM fungi were disproportionately associated with forbs and ruderal plants. There was phylogenetic correlation among AM fungi in the degree of association with different plant growth forms and photosynthetic pathways.Associated AM fungal communities constitute an important component of plant ecological strategies. Functionally different plants associate with distinct AM fungal communities, linking mycorrhizal associations with functional diversity in ecosystems.

Grasslands are among the most threatened terrestrial biomes, and habitat conservation alone will be insufficient to meet biodiversity goals. While restoration of indigenous grasslands is a priority, conflict with economic objectives means that incorporation of alternative habitats is necessary to offset grassland loss. With up to 800,000 km2 of land affected by mining globally, there is an opportunity to create additional grassland habitat in post‐mining landscapes. We aimed to assess whether co‐introduction of native arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and plants is an efficient means of initializing species‐rich vegetation recovery in barren post‐mining landscapes. We established an experiment in three post‐mining areas in Estonia, where we seeded plots with native plant seeds and inoculated them with trap‐cultured native AM fungi from a similar habitat. We measured the abundance and composition of soil AM fungal and above‐ground plant communities in two consecutive years using relevés, high‐throughput sequencing and fatty acid profiling. Our results demonstrate that co‐introduction of native plants and AM fungi is an effective way to establish species‐rich vegetation in post‐mining areas. Co‐introduction of symbiotic partners resulted in higher richness, diversity and abundance of plants and AM fungi than when either partner was introduced individually. However, the plant and AM fungal communities in sown and inoculated plots were not distinct from those in uninoculated treatments; they rather formed a subset of all taxa present on the sites but exhibited higher diversity than in uninoculated plots. Synthesis and applications. This study shows that managing the below‐ground microbiome is an essential part of vegetation restoration. The availability of symbiotic partners can be considered a key aspect determining the diversity of restored vegetation. Targeted inoculations with native and habitat‐specific native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi could therefore increase restoration success.

Aim Organisms on our planet form spatially congruent and functionally distinct communities, which at large geographical scales are called “biomes”. Understanding their pattern and function is vital for sustainable use and protection of biodiversity. Current global terrestrial biome classifications are based primarily on climate characteristics and functional aspects of plant community assembly. These and other existing biome schemes do not take account of soil organisms, including highly diverse and functionally important microbial groups. We aimed to define large‐scale structure in the diversity of soil microbes (soil microbiomes), pinpoint the environmental drivers shaping it and identify resemblance and mismatch with existing terrestrial biome schemes. Location Global. Time period Current. Major taxa studied Soil eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Methods We collected soil samples from natural environments world‐wide, incorporating most known terrestrial biomes. We used high‐throughput sequencing to characterize soil biotic communities and k‐means clustering to define soil microbiomes describing the diversity of microbial eukaryotic and prokaryotic groups. We used climatic data and soil variables measured in the field to identify the environmental variables shaping soil microbiome structure. Results We recorded strong correlations among fungal, bacterial, archaeal, plant and animal communities, defined a system of global soil microbiomes (producing seven biome types for microbial eukaryotes and six biome types for prokaryotes) and showed that these are typically structured by pH alongside temperature. None of the soil microbiomes are directly paralleled by any current terrestrial biome scheme, with mismatch most substantial for prokaryotes and for microbial eukaryotes in cold climates; nor do they consistently distinguish grassland and forest ecosystems. Main conclusions Existing terrestrial biome classifications represent a limited surrogate for the large‐scale diversity patterns of microbial soil organisms. We show that empirically defined soil microbiomes are attainable using metabarcoding and statistical clustering approaches and suggest that they can have wide application in theoretical and applied biodiversity research.