Roadside disturbance promotes plant communities with arbuscular mycorrhizal associations in mountain regions worldwide
Data files
Apr 05, 2024 version files 4.64 MB
Abstract
Aim: We aimed to assess the impact of road disturbances on the dominant mycorrhizal types in ecosystems at the global level and how this mechanism can potentially lead to lasting plant community changes.
Location: Globally distributed mountain regions
Time Period: 2007-2018 Taxa studied: Plants (linked to their associated mycorrhizal fungi)
Methods: We used a database of coordinated plant community surveys following mountain roads from 894 plots in 11 mountain regions across the globe in combination with an existing database of mycorrhizal-plant associations in order to approximate the relative abundance of mycorrhizal types in natural and disturbed environments.
Results: Our findings show that roadside disturbance promotes the cover of plants associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. This effect is especially strong in colder mountain environments and in mountain regions where plant communities are dominated by ectomycorrhizal (EcM) or ericoid-mycorrhizal (ErM) associations. Furthermore, non-native plant species, which we confirmed to be mostly AM plants, are more successful in environments dominated by AM associations.
Main Conclusions: These biogeographical patterns suggest that changes in mycorrhizal types could be a crucial factor in the worldwide impact of anthropogenic disturbances on mountain ecosystems. Indeed, roadsides foster AM-dominated systems, where AM-fungi might aid AM-associated plant species while potentially reducing the biotic resistance against invasive non-native species, often also associated with AM networks. Restoration efforts in mountain ecosystems will have to contend with changes in the fundamental make-up of EcM- and ErM plant communities induced by roadside disturbance.
README: Roadside disturbance promotes plant communities with arbuscular mycorrhizal associations in mountain regions worldwide
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0p2ngf27s
This dataset contains the relevant subsets of the MIREN database and the associated extractions from the FungalRoot-database, as used in the underlying analysis.
Description of the data and file structure
Included datasets:
- Miren species data_DRYAD.xlsx: Species observations per plots across all of the MIREN regions, containing the following columns:
- name.region - Species name, followed by region code, to uniquely identify the species per region.
- Site - Site code, consisting of the region (e.g., AUN), road (e.g., AK), transect (e.g., 01) and plot (e.g., 1). For details on the study design, see the paper.
- Cover - cover class (1 to 7, 1 = <1%; 2 = 1 to 5%; 3 = 5 to 25%; 4 = 25 to 50%; 5 = 50 to 75%; 6 = 75 to 95%; and 7 = 95–100%). If NA, no cover was assessed that year (thus only presence-absence data presented here.
- Year - year of survey
- Accepted.name.MIREN - accepted species name as used in the MIREN database, standardized across regions. For more details, see Haider et al. 2021, Ecology & Evolution.
- Region - three letter code for the region. For all regions, see the paper.
- Status - Alien, Native, or Unknown.
Miren plot metadata_DRYAD.xlsx: plot-level metadata, including the following columns:
- pidn - Unique identifier of the plot for a specific date
- Site - Site code, consisting of the region (e.g., AUN), road (e.g., AK), transect (e.g., 01) and plot (e.g., 1). For details on the study design, see the paper.
- region - see Site
- road - see Site
- year - year of the survey (2007, 2012 or 2017, with sites surveyed in e.g., december 2006 included under 2007).
- transect - see Site
- plot - see Site
- elevation - plot-level elevation above sea level (in meters)
- lat - latitude, in decimal degrees, WGS84
- long - longitude, in decimal degrees, WGS84
- date - actual date of the survey, in DDMMYY
road_type - categorical, gravel, asphalt or dirtroad
NAs are possible if information was not measured in the field for a particular plot, year and/or region.
Miren Temperature Data.csv: plot-level climate data, including the following columns:and soil temperature (SBio1), and the , respectively.
- Site - Site code, consisting of the region (e.g., AUN), road (e.g., AK), transect (e.g., 01) and plot (e.g., 1). For details on the study design, see the paper.
- SBio1_MIREN - mean annual soil temperature extracted from the Global maps of soil temperature https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16060 based on the plot-level coordinates. In °C.
Bio1_MIREN - mean annual air temperature extracted from CHELSA (chelsa-climate.org) based on the plot-level coordinates. In °C.
NAs are possible if a certain point did not fall within a pixel of the gridded climate products (e.g., due to it being too close to the ocean).
FungalRoot genus level_DRYAD.xlsx: a table including all genera observed within the study, with their genus-level mycorrhizal type as extracted from the FungalRoot-database. Contains the following columns:
- Genus - Plant genus name
- Mycorrhizal type - AM = Arbuscular mycorrhiza, EcM = Ecto-mycorrhiza, ErM = ericoid mycorrhiza, OM = orchid mycorrhiza, NM = non-mycorrhizal, uncertain = unknown. \ Combinations of two mycorrhizal types (especially with NM) are possible.
FungalRoot species level_DRYAD.xlsx: a table extracted from the FungalRoot-database, including species with their species-level mycorrhizal type (wherever available), containing the following columns:
- species - species name
- Mycorrhizal type - AM = Arbuscular mycorrhiza, EcM = Ecto-mycorrhiza, ErM = ericoid mycorrhiza, OM = orchid mycorrhiza, non-mycorrhizal = non-mycorrhizal (checked for all types indicates relative certainty that no mycorrhiza are present)\ 'Others not addressed' means that the presence of other mycorrhizal types has not been verified, yet usually the mentioned mycorrhizal type is dominant.\ 'No others' means that the presence of other mycorrhizal types has been checked.\ Species might be mentioned multiple times when assessed by multiple sources (for more details, see the FungalRoot-database itself)
Sharing/Access information
Data was derived from the following main sources:
- The Mountain Invasion Research Network: https://zenodo.org/records/5529072
- The FungalRoot database: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.16569
Methods
Combination of the long-term vegetation monitoring dataset from MIREN (www.mountaininvasions.org) with a database of mycorrhizal associations (FungalRoots). For more details, see the paper.