Vegetation Restoration Alters Fungal Community Composition and Functional Groups in a Desert Ecosystem

Abstract

Revegetation is regarded as an effective means to improve the ecological environment in deserts and profoundly influences the potential ecological functions of the soil fungal community. Therefore, Illumina high-throughput sequencing was performed to characterize the soil fungal diversity and community composition at two soil depths (0–10 cm and 10–20 cm) with four revegetation durations (natural grassland, half-mature, nearly mature, and mature Pinus. sylvestris var. mongolica plantations) in the Mu Us Sandy Land, China. The effects of soil properties on soil fungal communities were also examined to reveal the connection between fungal function and soil environment. The results indicated that 1) soil nutrient content and enzyme activity showed significant differences through the restoration durations, 2) there was no significant effect of soil depth on soil fungal diversity, while the Shannon diversity index of all fungal communities was significantly different among different revegetation durations, 3) compared with grassland, ectomycorrhizal fungi (notably, Inocybe, Tuber, and Calostoma) were abundant in plantations. The endophyte fungus Mortierella was among the top 10 genera in all soil samples and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Diversispora was the indicator genus of the grassland, and 4) catalase and total nitrogen were the main factors affecting fungal community composition and were closely related to saprotrophs and pathotrophs, respectively. This new information indicates the variation of soil fungal communities along revegetation durations and highlights the interaction between fungal functions and desert ecosystems.

Soil Fungal Community Structure and Function Shift during a Disease-Driven Forest Succession

“…The abundance of symbiotrophs was higher in the mixed forests than that in the pure forests. The mixed forests in our study had higher abundance of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi and SOC content than other forests, which is in line with a previous finding that soil organic matter has a positive correlation with ECM fungi ( 54 , 55 ). Pathotrophic fungi are suspected of causing diseases or negatively affecting plant performance because they derive nutrient substances by attacking host cells ( 56 ).…”

Effects of Different Land Use Types and Soil Depths on Soil Mineral Elements, Soil Enzyme Activity, and Fungal Community in Karst Area of Southwest China

“…Fungi are considered to be the main producers of soil enzymes. It was reported that the relationship between soil fungal community diversity and soil enzyme activity [ 82 , 83 ]. In our study, soil fungi with different use types and depths were correlated with different kinds of enzymes.…”

“…Inv and Alp mainly affect the fungal community in forest and Zanthoxylum planispinum soil. Studies have shown that alkaline phosphatase was mainly related to the fungal composition of grassland topsoil and mature forest subsoil [ 83 ]. Rotation and fertilization will increase the enzymes involved in organic carbon, nitrogen mineralization and decomposition.…”

Ectomycorrhizal Fungi Associated With Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica Were Altered by Soil Environments With Aging Plantation in a Semi-arid Desert

“…Water is the major limiting factor for the survival and growth of P. sylvestris due to the large water consumption for transpiration and the limitations of natural rainfall conditions in arid and semi-arid ecosystems (Hu et al, 2015;Liu et al, 2021a). In addition, soil nutrient is an essential constraining factor affecting plantation development (Zhang et al, 2021). With the development of forests, soil nutrient depletion is serious, so the nutrients used for the EcM fungal growth are limited.…”