Long-term nitrogen addition and reduced precipitation restructure soil fungal community in a temperate forest

ABSTRACT

Fungi play an important role in mediating soil functioning and plant nutrients absorption. Although nitrogen (N) addition and reduced precipitation can affect fungal community composition, the response of fungal taxonomic and functional groups to changes in soil N and water availability is still unclear. Here, we established a long-term field manipulations experiment of N addition and throughfall exclusion to investigate fungal communities’ response to N addition and reduced precipitation. Illumina Sequencing of ITS amplicons was used to examine soil fungal communities in winter and summer. Results showed that N addition, reduced precipitation and their combined effect significantly altered the soil fungal community composition. Basidiomycetes associated with humus decomposition dominated in ambient soil and Ascomycetes abundance dramatically increased and dominated in N addition in both winter and summer. Reduced precipitation and the combined effect significantly increased fungal richness and diversity. Moreover, the relative abundance of mycorrhizal and saprotroph fungal communities responded positively to reduced precipitation. Our results indicate reduced precipitation alleviated the competition between fungi, while N addition could reduce the rate decomposition of humus.

KEYWORDS:

• N addition
• reduced precipitation
• fungal communities and functions
• temperate forest

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (41773075, 41575137, 31370494, 31170421).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 41773075, 41575137, 31370494, 31170421].