Long-lasting modification of soil fungal diversity associated with the introduction of rabbits to a remote sub-Antarctic archipelago

• Published in: Biology Letters
• Main Authors: Pierre Taberlet, Ludovic Gielly, Richard C. Winkworth, Philippe Choler, Johan Pansu, Françoise Hennion
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF), Institute for Molecular BioSciences, Ecosystèmes, biodiversité, évolution Rennes (ECOBIO), Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Institut Ecologie et Environnement (INEE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Royal Society 2015
• Subjects: Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous); General Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Kerguelen Islands; environmental DNA; metabarcoding; soil communities; Community Ecology; geo; envir; Antarctic; Kerguelen; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0408; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0408; https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0408; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0408; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4614422/; https://europepmc.org/article/MED/26333663; https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01235755; https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20153392775; https://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/9/20150408; https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2284134309; https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4614422/

During the late nineteenth century, Europeans introduced rabbits to many of the sub-Antarctic islands, environments that prior to this had been devoid of mammalian herbivores. The impacts of rabbits on indigenous ecosystems are well studied; notably, they cause dramatic changes in plant communities and promote soil erosion. However, the responses of fungal communities to such biotic disturbances remain unexplored. We used metabarcoding of soil extracellular DNA to assess the diversity of plant and fungal communities at sites on the sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Islands with contrasting histories of disturbance by rabbits. Our results suggest that on these islands, the simplification of plant communities and increased erosion resulting from the introduction of rabbits have driven compositional changes, including diversity reductions, in indigenous soil fungal communities. Moreover, there is no indication of recovery at sites from which rabbits were removed 20 years ago. These results imply that introduced herbivores have long-lasting and multifaceted effects on fungal biodiversity as well as highlight the low resiliency of sub-Antarctic ecosystems.