Foliar fungal communities strongly differ between habitat patches in a landscape mosaic

Abstract

BackgroundDispersal events between habitat patches in a landscape mosaic can structure ecological communities and influence the functioning of agrosystems. Here we investigated whether short-distance dispersal events between vineyard and forest patches shape foliar fungal communities. We hypothesized that these communities homogenize between habitats over the course of the growing season, particularly along habitat edges, because of aerial dispersal of spores.MethodsWe monitored the richness and composition of foliar and airborne fungal communities over the season, along transects perpendicular to edges between vineyard and forest patches, using Illumina sequencing of the Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 (ITS2) region.ResultsIn contrast to our expectation, foliar fungal communities in vineyards and forest patches increasingly differentiate over the growing season, even along habitat edges. Moreover, the richness of foliar fungal communities in grapevine drastically decreased over the growing season, in contrast to that of forest trees. The composition of airborne communities did not differ between habitats. The composition of oak foliar fungal communities change between forest edge and centre.DiscussionThese results suggest that dispersal events between habitat patches are not major drivers of foliar fungal communities at the landscape scale. Selective pressures exerted in each habitat by the host plant, the microclimate and the agricultural practices play a greater role, and might account for the differentiation of foliar fugal communities between habitats.

Microbial association networks give relevant insights into plant pathobiomes

“…The relative abundance of the pathogen was much higher in our study (between 15 to 70% depending on the tissue type) than in other studies of grapevine foliar fungal communities, where it represented less than 5% Gobbi et al 2020). Several factors, including leaf age and sampling date, might account for this difference as there is marked turnover in the grapevine foliar fungal community along the vegetative season (Pinto & Gomes 2016;Fort et al 2016;Gobbi et al 2020). The artificial inoculation of the pathogen on some vines at the beginning of the vegetative season is also probably responsible for the higher relative abundance of the pathogen in our study.…”

Occurrence of common phyllosphere fungi of horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is unrelated to degree of damage by leafminer (Cameraria ohridella)

“…For example, Jumpponen and Jones (2010) have also shown that fungal communities in the phyllosphere of Quercus macrocarpa are greatly influenced by site conditions. Fort et al (2016) have shown that the microclimate is among the major factors that might account for differences in foliar fungal communities between sites. Although the number of fungal taxa detected in our study was high (1017 fungal taxa) and comparable to similar phyllosphere fungi studies in different tree species Figure 3.…”

Culture‐based methods using low‐temperature incubation revealed cold‐adapted fungal endophytes from semiarid forests

“…The spatial variations and temporal dynamics of endophytic fungal communities have been studied frequently in the past few years (Martins et al, 2016;Mishra et al, 2012;Scholtysik, Unterseher, Otto, & Wirth, 2013). Earlier studies have also indicated that the differences between endophytic communities of different habitats are mainly resulted from environmental characteristics such as microclimate and host plant (Fort, Robin, Capdevielle, Delière, & Vacher, 2016;Loro, Valero-Jiménez, Nozawa, & Márquez, 2012;Mulder & de Zwart, 2003). Earlier studies have also indicated that the differences between endophytic communities of different habitats are mainly resulted from environmental characteristics such as microclimate and host plant (Fort, Robin, Capdevielle, Delière, & Vacher, 2016;Loro, Valero-Jiménez, Nozawa, & Márquez, 2012;Mulder & de Zwart, 2003).…”

“…In this case, studied sites had similar forest structure, elevation range and climate which possibly led to relatively similar fungal communities in Q. brantii organs with similar diversity (Figure 3b). Earlier studies have also indicated that the differences between endophytic communities of different habitats are mainly resulted from environmental characteristics such as microclimate and host plant (Fort, Robin, Capdevielle, Delière, & Vacher, 2016;Loro, Valero-Jiménez, Nozawa, & Márquez, 2012;Mulder & de Zwart, 2003). (Robinson, 2001).…”