Soil physico-chemical properties have a greater effect on soil fungi than host species in Mediterranean pure and mixed pine forests

Abstract

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

Lack of Phylogenetic Differences in Ectomycorrhizal Fungi among Distinct Mediterranean Pine Forest Habitats

“…However, these three fractions were not significant and explained a residual amount of variation, thus, the second hypothesis is not accepted. Although previous studies have identified that soil parameters are the main drivers of taxonomic ectomycorrhizal community variation in Mediterranean pine forest [17], here, soil parameters were marginally important in driving ectomycorrhizal phylogenetic composition. This may imply that at the phylogenetic level, the lack of strong abiotic gradients results in the occurrence of non-closely related species which are adapted to heterogeneous but not specific environmental conditions [88].…”

“…Moreover, we detected a weak abiotic filtering effect on the ectomycorrhizal phylogenetic compositional variation, being pH the only variable among soil variables that significantly influence the ectomycorrhizal phylogenetic community. This finding suggests that pH acts as a strong abiotic filter on the ectomycorrhizal community at both phylogenetic and taxonomic levels [17]. In contrast, ectomycorrhizal phylogenetic structure variation was marginally influenced only by the shared effect of stand structure, soil, and geographic distance.…”

“…Previous studies have identified that ectomycorrhizal taxonomic composition is influenced by soil parameters followed by geographical distance [27,47] Thus, we hypothesized that soil physico-chemistry will act as the main habitat filter on ectomycorrhizal phylogenetic composition [48]. Finally, among abiotic filters pH, P, and CN ratio strongly influenced ectomycorrhizal taxonomic community composition [17]. Here, we tested if these filters would act similarly over ectomycorrhizal phylogenetic composition.…”

“…Therefore, host effect and abiotic soil parameters are often fundamental drivers of ectomycorrhizal community assembly [11][12][13][14][15][16]. Moreover, previous studies showed that ectomycorrhizal taxonomic community composition does not significantly change between Mediterranean congeneric pine species [17]. Nevertheless, how ectomycorrhizal fungi are phylogenetically structured among Mediterranean pine host species and whether at both taxonomic and phylogenetic level respond to similar abiotic factors has not been assessed yet.…”

“…In Mediterranean ecosystems, soil N might not be limited due to warmer temperatures which may enhance N mineralization by increasing decomposition of the organic matter [17,49]. Therefore, short exploration types could uptake nutrients close to the host roots.…”