Spatial patterns and determinants of common root-associated fungi in a subtropical forest of China

doi:10.1093/jpe/rty018

J Plant Ecol ›› 2019, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (2): 255-263 .DOI: 10.1093/jpe/rty018

• Research Articles • Previous Articles Next Articles

Spatial patterns and determinants of common root-associated fungi in a subtropical forest of China

Abdul Shakoor^1,2, Shan Li^1,2, Fang Wang^1,2, Tian Tian^1,2, Yu Liang^1,3,* and Keping Ma¹#br#

¹ State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
³ Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
*Correspondence address. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China. Tel: +86-10-62836958; Fax: +86-10-82599518; E-mail: coolrain@ibcas.ac.cn

Received:2018-04-13 Revised:2018-05-30 Accepted:2018-06-05 Online:2018-06-11 Published:2019-04-01

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims

Spatial patterns of fungal populations are affected by plant distribution, abiotic factors, fungal dispersal ability and inter-species interactions. While several studies have addressed spatial patterns of some mycorrhizal, saprotrophic and pathogenic fungi, the method based on fruit-body surveys is not efficient and unreliable to study the spatial pattern of root-associated fungal species because most fungi in plant roots do not have sporocarps and cannot be identified based only on morphological traits. Our aims are (i) to determine the spatial pattern of common root-associated fungi; (ii) to evaluate whether the abundance and spatial pattern of root-associated fungi and categories of fungi, reflect their biotic and abiotic niche constraints.

Methods

About 828 soil cores were collected from a 24-ha plot in a subtropical forest and Illumina Miseq was carried out to determine fungal composition in root samples and spatial patterns of 1009 common fungal Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) were studied using point pattern analyses. Biotic (plant community composition) and abiotic niche constraints on the presence/abundance of a fungal OTU was assessed as the n-dimensional niche hypervolumes of biotic and abiotic characteristics.

Important Findings

Our results showed that (i) most fungal OTUs were highly spatially aggregated at small scales (less than 30 m), but that the aggregated pattern decreased, while regular and random patterns increased, with the increasing distance; (ii) A significant positive correlation was found between fungal abundance and aggregation intensity of fungal OTUs, indicating that the dominant fungi tended to be more aggregated in natural forests; (iii) Mean abundance and spatial aggregation intensity of ectomycorrhizal and pathogenic fungi were relatively higher than those of saprotrophic fungi, indicating that host plants may play an important role in determining spatial pattern of root-associated fungi; (iv) Spatial patterns of root-associated fungi depended on fungal abundance, fungal functional group, fungal taxa, biotic and abiotic niche hypervolumes of fungal OTUs.

Key words: spatial pattern, fungal population, subtropical forests, high-throughput sequencing, dispersal, niche hypervolume

Abdul Shakoor, Shan Li, Fang Wang, Tian Tian, Yu Liang and Keping Ma. Spatial patterns and determinants of common root-associated fungi in a subtropical forest of China[J]. J Plant Ecol, 2019, 12(2): 255-263.

[1]	Congwen Wang, Yuan Wang, Linna Ma, Xuehua Ye, Guofang Liu. Distinct geographic patterns and drivers of plant, bacterial, and fungal β-diversity in semi-arid grasslands: Insights from a 1,700 km transect in northern China [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2026, 19(1): 1-.
[2]	Zhiwen Guo, Jun Tang, Guozhen Lai, Liting Liu, Xiangping Wang. Structural diversity primarily drives forest biomass along altitudinal gradients in subtropical forests [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2025, 18(6): 1-.
[3]	Yanwen Bo, Yali Liao, Mark Pawlett, Rasheed Akbar, Nickolas Girkin, Jianfan Sun, Amjad Ali, Naushad Ahmad, Wei Liu, Xiaoyan Wang, Daolin Du. Solidago canadensis modifies microbial community and soil physicochemical properties through litter leachates and root exudates [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2025, 18(2): 1-14.
[4]	Xuanping Qin, Wei Liang, Minghu Liu, Zhiming Xin, Zhigang Wang, Quanlai Zhou, Liang Tian, Lu Zong, Jinlei Zhu, Zhimin Liu. Effects of plant crown characteristics on dispersal kernels of wind-dispersed seeds under low wind speeds [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2025, 18(1): 1-11.
[5]	Fandong Meng, Yanzi Yan, Lili Li, Lirong Zhang, Bixi Guo, Zhiyong Yang, Tsechoe Dorji. Solar radiation shapes the spatial pattern of spring phenology on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2025, 18(1): 1-10.
[6]	Weitao Wang, Yun Jiang, Yongfa Chen, Wenqi Luo, Dong He, Youshi Wang, Chengjin Chu, Buhang Li. Using intraspecific variation of functional traits and environmental factors to understand the formation of nestedness patterns of a local forest community [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2022, 15(6): 1185-1198.
[7]	Jinlei Zhu , Carsten M. Buchmann and Frank M. Schurr. Effects of seed morphology and orientation on secondary seed dispersal by wind [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2022, 15(6): 1257-1272.
[8]	Yuhang Dai, Fanxi Gong, Xueqin Yang, Xiuzhi Chen, Yongxian Su, Liyang Liu, Jianping Wu, Xiaodong Liu and Qingling Sun. Litterfall seasonality and adaptive strategies of tropical and subtropical evergreen forests in China [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2022, 15(2): 320-334.
[9]	Evaldo B. de Souza, Francielli Bao, Geraldo A. Damasceno Junior, and Arnildo Pott. Differences between species in seed bank and vegetation helps to hold functional diversity in a floodable Neotropical savanna [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2021, 14(4): 605-615.
[10]	Efrat Dener, Hagai Shemesh and Itamar Giladi. The effect of pollen source on seed traits and dispersability in the heterocarpic annual Crepis sancta [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2021, 14(3): 425-437.
[11]	Markus S. Germany, Helge Bruelheide and Alexandra Erfmeier. Drivers of understorey biomass: tree species identity is more important than richness in a young forest [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2021, 14(3): 465-477.
[12]	Songping Liu, Feng Lin, Xiaolei Su, Qiaoli Ayi, Hangang Niu, Shaohua Shi, Binna Wan, Bo Zeng and Xiaoping Zhang. Intraspecific differentiation in seed flooding tolerance of Echinochloa crusgalli var. zelayensis population in shores of a giant reservoir along altitudinal gradients [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2021, 14(1): 22-32.
[13]	Carolina Bravo, Daniel Chamorro, Fernando Hiraldo, Karina Speziale, Sergio A. Lambertucci, José L. Tella and Guillermo Blanco. Physiological dormancy broken by endozoochory: Austral parakeets (Enicognathus ferrugineus) as legitimate dispersers of calafate (Berberis microphylla) in the Patagonian Andes [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2020, 13(5): 538-544.
[14]	Yan Zhang, Xun Li, Danju Zhang, Yu Qin, Yang Zhou, Simeng Song and Jian Zhang. Characteristics of fungal community structure during the decomposition of mixed foliage litter from Pinus massoniana and broadleaved tree species in southwestern China [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2020, 13(5): 574-588.
[15]	Wenting Liu, Shixian Sun, Chunping Zhang, Shijie Lv and Quanmin Dong. Linking plant spatial aggregation with reproductive traits and near-source seed dispersal: ecological adaptation to heavy grazing [J]. J Plant Ecol, 2020, 13(4): 489-498.

Spatial patterns and determinants of common root-associated fungi in a subtropical forest of China

HTML

PDF

Knowledge

Abstract

Cite this article

share this article

References

Related Articles 15

Recommended Articles

Metrics

Comments