Diversity of soil fungal communities of Cerrado and its closely surrounding agriculture fields

Abstract

Cerrado is a savanna-like region that covers a large area of Brazil. Despite its biological importance, the Cerrado has been the focus of few microbial diversity studies. A molecular approach was chosen to characterize the soil fungal communities in four areas of the Cerrado biome: a native Cerrado, a riverbank forest, an area converted to a soybean plantation, and an area converted to pasture. Global diversity of fungal communities in each area was assessed through Ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis which revealed remarkable differences among the areas studied. Sequencing of approximately 200 clones containing 18S rDNA sequences from each library was performed and, according to the genetic distance between sequences, these were assigned to operational taxonomic units (OTUs). A total of 75, 85, 85, and 70 OTUs were identified for the native Cerrado, riverbank forest, pasture, and soybean plantation, respectively. Analysis of sequences using a similarity cutoff value of 1% showed that the number of OTUs for the native Cerrado area was reduced by 35%; for the soybean plantation, a reduction by more than 50% was observed, indicating a reduction in fungal biodiversity associated with anthropogenic activity. This is the first study demonstrating the anthropogenic impact on Cerrado soil fungal diversity.

Links between plant and fungal communities across a deforestation chronosequence in the Amazon rainforest

“…In tropical ecosystems, the responses of soil fungal biodiversity to land-use change are only beginning to be explored, and responsiveness has been shown in some cases (for example, Fracetto et al, 2013) but not in others (for example, Leal et al, 2009). Fungal communities can be structured by nutrient availability (Rousk et al, 2010) and plant community composition (Carney and Matson, 2006;Peay et al, 2013), suggesting that shifts in soil fungal communities in response to land-use change (Castro et al, 2008;Fracetto et al, 2013) could result from alterations in soil properties and/or plant communities. However, the relative strength of these factors in determining fungal community composition in tropical systems has not been examined.…”

The orchid bee fauna (Hymenoptera, Apidae) of a core area of the Cerrado, Brazil: the role of riparian forests as corridors for forest-associated bees

“…Studies on the diversity, distributional patterns and faunistic composition of the Cerrado are urgently needed, since large areas in this domain are being transformed into crops, pastures (Camargo & Becker 1999, Castro et al 2008, Carrijo et al 2009) and forests of exotic trees, mainly eucalypts (Oliveira 1998). Evidences suggest that habitat alteration may affect local faunas of pollinating insects (e. g. Aizen & Feinsinger 1994, Steffan-Dewenter et al 2002 and that these effects can be more pronounced in tropical areas (Ricketts et al 2008).…”

Structure of Fungal Communities in Sub-Irrigated Agricultural Soil from Cerrado Floodplains

“…Other studies on fungal community in tropical areas showed that forest-to-agriculture conversion can alters the abundance of members in soil fungal microbial communities [31,32]. In Cerrado, Castro et al [9] showed decrease in soil fungal microbial community diversity after soybean cultivation. Bresolin et al [11] studied soil fungal microbial communities in native Cerrado and no-tillage soybean monoculture area, and their results revealed different alterations in soil fungal microbial communities due to soil cover changes (fallow vs. growth period) and crop development.…”

“…The physical, chemical and biological attributes of the soil are affected by several conditions related to the type of soil preparation used in each management system; the effects on these attributes are dependent on the intensity of soil disturbance, traffic of farm tractors, type of equipment used, management of plant waste, and moisture conditions in the soil at the time of tillage [8]. Despite previous findings in areas of the Cerrado biome [9][10][11], there is a lack of information about the impact of soil agricultural management on the fungal microbial community in Cerrado areas.…”