Decrease in fungal biodiversity along an available phosphorous gradient in arable Andosol soils in Japan

Abstract

Andosols comprise one of the most important soil groups for agricultural activities in Japan because they cover about 46.5% of arable upland fields. In this soil group, available phosphorus (P) is accumulated by application of excessive fertilizer, but little is known about the influence of increasing P availability on microbial community diversity at large scales. We collected soil samples from 9 agro-geographical sites with Andosol soils across an available P gradient (2048.1-59.1 mg P2O5·kg(-1)) to examine the influence of P availability on the fungal community diversity. We used polymerase chain reaction - denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis to analyze the fungal communities based on 18S rRNA genes. Statistical analyses revealed a high negative correlation between available P and fungal diversity (H'). Fungal diversity across all sites exhibited a significant hump-shaped relationship with available P (R(2) = 0.38, P < 0.001). In addition, the composition of the fungal community was strongly correlated with the available P gradient. The ribotype F6, which was positively correlated with available P, was closely related to Mortierella. The results show that both the diversity and the composition of the fungal community were influenced by available P concentrations in Andosols, at a large scale. This represents an important step toward understanding the processes responsible for the maintenance of fungal diversity in Andosolic soils.

Differential mechanisms underlying responses of soil bacterial and fungal communities to nitrogen and phosphorus inputs in a subtropical forest

“…The understanding of fungal community responses to elevated P inputs remains limited (Leff et al, 2015). The effect of P addition on soil fungal community composition depends on ecosystem type, soil properties, and nutrient type and dose (Bao et al, 2013; Beauregard et al, 2010; Li et al, 2015; Liu et al, 2013). Previous studies have demonstrated that experimental P fertilization reduces the species richness of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which could increase soil nutrient capture of their hosts in return for plant C resource (Camenzind et al, 2014; Cheng et al, 2013; Liu et al, 2013).…”

Broad‐leaved forest types affect soil fungal community structure and soil organic carbon contents

“…However, few studies have investigated soil fungi owing to the limited technologies surrounding culture and morphological identification. With the development of high‐throughput sequencing technology over the last few years, soil fungi have received extensive attention, particularly with respect to variations along different spatial scales and environmental gradients, such as temperature (Zhou et al, ), precipitation (Hawkes et al, ; Zumsteg, Bååth, Stierli, Zeyer, & Frey, ), pH (Rousk et al, ), organic phosphorus (Bao et al, ), organic C (Hanson, Allison, Bradford, Wallenstein, & Treseder, ), and anthropogenic disturbances (Sun et al, ; Wang, Song, et al, ). Plant diversity has a strong correlation with soil fungi at local scales (Tedersoo et al, ; Yang, Adams, et al, ) but a weak correlation at global scales (Tedersoo et al, ).…”

Effects of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria, native microorganisms, and rock dust on Jatropha curcas L. growth

“…The increases and decreases in the number of populations observed in some gel lines may indicate, as with the results from the primers for the 16S rDNA, that fungal populations were influenced by the presence of rock dust or by the plant, showing negative or positive selection patterns. A negative interaction between plants and microbial communities was also observed by Bao et al (2013). A greater number of fungus populations were detected among plants with the maximum growth in height and higher biomass production.…”