Scholarlink

Background and aims <p>Understanding how aridity shapes fungal communities is essential for predicting ecosystem responses to climate change. Monodominant forests of Aleppo pine (<i>Pinus halepensis</i>) occurring along a steep precipitation gradient, offer the opportunity to test the effect of aridity on distance decay patterns of soil fungi, without the confounding effects of vegetation.</p> Methods <p>We conducted nested soil sampling in four Mediterranean, two semi-arid and three arid forests along an aridity gradient (250–800&#xa0;mm annual precipitation) and examined distance decay patterns of saprotrophic (SAP) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi at different spatial scales.</p> Results <p>ITS2 soil metabarcoding revealed that both fungal richness and diversity increased with precipitation. Fungal communities showed significant spatial autocorrelation at multiple scales, with stronger distance decay patterns in Mediterranean than arid forests. ECM and SAP communities in arid sites were largely subsets of the Mediterranean climate communities. Stochastic assembly processes dominated under mesic conditions, while deterministic processes prevailed in arid regions, particularly for ECM fungi.</p> Conclusions <p>Our results suggest that aridity can reduce fungal richness and stochasticity in community assembly, and that climate can structure fungal communities independently of vegetation. This study highlights the need to consider scale-dependent ecological processes and emphasizes the role of climate, beyond vegetation, in shaping fungal community assembly in forest soils.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Richness, community structure and distance decay of soil fungi along a sharp aridity gradient in monodominant pine forests

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月18日

查看全文
  • Stav Livne-Luzon,
  • Amal Hibner,
  • Lior Herol,
  • Camille Truong,
  • Tamir Klein,
  • Hagai Shemesh

摘要

Background and aims

Understanding how aridity shapes fungal communities is essential for predicting ecosystem responses to climate change. Monodominant forests of Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) occurring along a steep precipitation gradient, offer the opportunity to test the effect of aridity on distance decay patterns of soil fungi, without the confounding effects of vegetation.

Methods

We conducted nested soil sampling in four Mediterranean, two semi-arid and three arid forests along an aridity gradient (250–800 mm annual precipitation) and examined distance decay patterns of saprotrophic (SAP) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi at different spatial scales.

Results

ITS2 soil metabarcoding revealed that both fungal richness and diversity increased with precipitation. Fungal communities showed significant spatial autocorrelation at multiple scales, with stronger distance decay patterns in Mediterranean than arid forests. ECM and SAP communities in arid sites were largely subsets of the Mediterranean climate communities. Stochastic assembly processes dominated under mesic conditions, while deterministic processes prevailed in arid regions, particularly for ECM fungi.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that aridity can reduce fungal richness and stochasticity in community assembly, and that climate can structure fungal communities independently of vegetation. This study highlights the need to consider scale-dependent ecological processes and emphasizes the role of climate, beyond vegetation, in shaping fungal community assembly in forest soils.