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Dryad

Influence of soil type and vertical zonation on soil fungal communities associated with natural jack pine forests

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May 13, 2024 version files 1.80 MB

Abstract

Natural jack pine forests established on sandy eskers and clayey soils represent a unique habitat in the boreal forest in northeastern Canada and are generally associated with well-differentiated soil horizons, but little is known regarding their soil fungal diversity and how soil type and vertical zonation would shape their communities. To address this question, we characterized soil fungal communities from litter, organic and mineral horizons in 18 natural jack pine forests in esker and clayey soils using ITS2 rDNA metabarcoding. Ectomycorrhizal fungi dominated the organic and mineral horizons in esker soils, while saprotrophic fungi were dominant in clayey soils. The dominance of ectomycorrhizal fungi coincided with higher C accumulation within the organic horizon in esker soils. The nutrient-poor and more acidic esker sites harbored less diverse ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic communities than clayey soils. Several stress-tolerant and melanin-rich fungal taxa were indicators of esker soils. However, fungal communities were more distinct between horizons than soil types and soil type effects differed along the soil profile. Our findings highlight the need to fill knowledge gaps in soil fungal diversity associated with jack pine forests and pave the way for adapted and multi-resource forest management in esker forest ecosystems considering their underground fungal specificities.