Wildfire severity reduces richness and alters composition of soil fungal communities in boreal forests of western Canada
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Wildfire is the dominant disturbance in boreal forests and fire activity is increasing in these regions. Soil fungal communities are important for plant growth and nutrient cycling postfire but there is little understanding of how fires impact fungal communities acro...
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ftsmithonian:oai:figshare.com:article/14330723 2023-05-15T17:46:37+02:00 Wildfire severity reduces richness and alters composition of soil fungal communities in boreal forests of western Canada Nicola Day (9999017) KE Dunfield (10487894) JF Johnstone (10487849) MC Mack (10487858) MR Turetsky (10487861) XJ Walker (10487864) AL White (10487846) JL Baltzer (10487867) 2019-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.14330723.v1 unknown https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Wildfire_severity_reduces_richness_and_alters_composition_of_soil_fungal_communities_in_boreal_forests_of_western_Canada/14330723 doi:10.26686/wgtn.14330723.v1 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 CC-BY-NC-ND Uncategorized disturbance functional groups global change mycorrhizas saprotrophs Taiga Plains understory Soil Canada Northwest Territories Forests Taiga Mycobiome Wildfires Ecology Environmental Sciences Biological Sciences Text Journal contribution 2019 ftsmithonian https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.14330723.v1 2021-04-11T16:01:57Z © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Wildfire is the dominant disturbance in boreal forests and fire activity is increasing in these regions. Soil fungal communities are important for plant growth and nutrient cycling postfire but there is little understanding of how fires impact fungal communities across landscapes, fire severity gradients, and stand types in boreal forests. Understanding relationships between fungal community composition, particularly mycorrhizas, and understory plant composition is therefore important in predicting how future fire regimes may affect vegetation. We used an extreme wildfire event in boreal forests of Canada's Northwest Territories to test drivers of fungal communities and assess relationships with plant communities. We sampled soils from 39 plots 1 year after fire and 8 unburned plots. High-throughput sequencing (MiSeq, ITS) revealed 2,034 fungal operational taxonomic units. We found soil pH and fire severity (proportion soil organic layer combusted), and interactions between these drivers were important for fungal community structure (composition, richness, diversity, functional groups). Where fire severity was low, samples with low pH had higher total fungal, mycorrhizal, and saprotroph richness compared to where severity was high. Increased fire severity caused declines in richness of total fungi, mycorrhizas, and saprotrophs, and declines in diversity of total fungi and mycorrhizas. The importance of stand age (a surrogate for fire return interval) for fungal composition suggests we could detect long-term successional patterns even after fire. Mycorrhizal and plant community composition, richness, and diversity were weakly but significantly correlated. These weak relationships and the distribution of fungi across plots suggest that the underlying driver of fungal community structure is pH, which is modified by fire severity. This study shows the importance of edaphic factors in determining fungal community structure at large scales, but suggests these patterns are mediated by interactions between fire and forest stand composition. Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper Northwest Territories taiga Taiga plains Unknown Northwest Territories Canada |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Unknown |
op_collection_id |
ftsmithonian |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Uncategorized disturbance functional groups global change mycorrhizas saprotrophs Taiga Plains understory Soil Canada Northwest Territories Forests Taiga Mycobiome Wildfires Ecology Environmental Sciences Biological Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Uncategorized disturbance functional groups global change mycorrhizas saprotrophs Taiga Plains understory Soil Canada Northwest Territories Forests Taiga Mycobiome Wildfires Ecology Environmental Sciences Biological Sciences Nicola Day (9999017) KE Dunfield (10487894) JF Johnstone (10487849) MC Mack (10487858) MR Turetsky (10487861) XJ Walker (10487864) AL White (10487846) JL Baltzer (10487867) Wildfire severity reduces richness and alters composition of soil fungal communities in boreal forests of western Canada |
topic_facet |
Uncategorized disturbance functional groups global change mycorrhizas saprotrophs Taiga Plains understory Soil Canada Northwest Territories Forests Taiga Mycobiome Wildfires Ecology Environmental Sciences Biological Sciences |
description |
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Wildfire is the dominant disturbance in boreal forests and fire activity is increasing in these regions. Soil fungal communities are important for plant growth and nutrient cycling postfire but there is little understanding of how fires impact fungal communities across landscapes, fire severity gradients, and stand types in boreal forests. Understanding relationships between fungal community composition, particularly mycorrhizas, and understory plant composition is therefore important in predicting how future fire regimes may affect vegetation. We used an extreme wildfire event in boreal forests of Canada's Northwest Territories to test drivers of fungal communities and assess relationships with plant communities. We sampled soils from 39 plots 1 year after fire and 8 unburned plots. High-throughput sequencing (MiSeq, ITS) revealed 2,034 fungal operational taxonomic units. We found soil pH and fire severity (proportion soil organic layer combusted), and interactions between these drivers were important for fungal community structure (composition, richness, diversity, functional groups). Where fire severity was low, samples with low pH had higher total fungal, mycorrhizal, and saprotroph richness compared to where severity was high. Increased fire severity caused declines in richness of total fungi, mycorrhizas, and saprotrophs, and declines in diversity of total fungi and mycorrhizas. The importance of stand age (a surrogate for fire return interval) for fungal composition suggests we could detect long-term successional patterns even after fire. Mycorrhizal and plant community composition, richness, and diversity were weakly but significantly correlated. These weak relationships and the distribution of fungi across plots suggest that the underlying driver of fungal community structure is pH, which is modified by fire severity. This study shows the importance of edaphic factors in determining fungal community structure at large scales, but suggests these patterns are mediated by interactions between fire and forest stand composition. |
format |
Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nicola Day (9999017) KE Dunfield (10487894) JF Johnstone (10487849) MC Mack (10487858) MR Turetsky (10487861) XJ Walker (10487864) AL White (10487846) JL Baltzer (10487867) |
author_facet |
Nicola Day (9999017) KE Dunfield (10487894) JF Johnstone (10487849) MC Mack (10487858) MR Turetsky (10487861) XJ Walker (10487864) AL White (10487846) JL Baltzer (10487867) |
author_sort |
Nicola Day (9999017) |
title |
Wildfire severity reduces richness and alters composition of soil fungal communities in boreal forests of western Canada |
title_short |
Wildfire severity reduces richness and alters composition of soil fungal communities in boreal forests of western Canada |
title_full |
Wildfire severity reduces richness and alters composition of soil fungal communities in boreal forests of western Canada |
title_fullStr |
Wildfire severity reduces richness and alters composition of soil fungal communities in boreal forests of western Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Wildfire severity reduces richness and alters composition of soil fungal communities in boreal forests of western Canada |
title_sort |
wildfire severity reduces richness and alters composition of soil fungal communities in boreal forests of western canada |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.14330723.v1 |
geographic |
Northwest Territories Canada |
geographic_facet |
Northwest Territories Canada |
genre |
Northwest Territories taiga Taiga plains |
genre_facet |
Northwest Territories taiga Taiga plains |
op_relation |
https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Wildfire_severity_reduces_richness_and_alters_composition_of_soil_fungal_communities_in_boreal_forests_of_western_Canada/14330723 doi:10.26686/wgtn.14330723.v1 |
op_rights |
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.14330723.v1 |
_version_ |
1766150370897166336 |