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Citation for Study 16316

About Citation title: "Root Associated Fungal Community Response to Drought-Associated Changes in Vegetation Community.".
About Study name: "Root Associated Fungal Community Response to Drought-Associated Changes in Vegetation Community.".
About This study is part of submission 16316 (Status: Published).

Citation

Dean S.L., Warnok D.D., Litvak M.E., Porras-alfaro A., & Sinsabaugh R.L. 2014. Root Associated Fungal Community Response to Drought-Associated Changes in Vegetation Community. Mycologia, .

Authors

  • Dean S.L. (submitter) Phone 610-283-1117
  • Warnok D.D.
  • Litvak M.E.
  • Porras-alfaro A.
  • Sinsabaugh R.L.

Abstract

Recent droughts in southwestern North America have led to large-scale mortality of pi?on (Pinus edulis) in pi?on-juniper woodlands. Pi?on mortality alters soil moisture, nutrient and carbon availability, which could affect the root-associated fungal (RAF) communities, and therefore the fitness, of the remaining plants. We collected fine root samples at pi?on-juniper woodland and a juniper savannah site in central New Mexico. Roots were collected from pi?on and juniper (Juniperus monosperma) trees whose nearest neighbors were live pi?on, live juniper or dead pi?on. RAF communities were analyzed by 454 pyrosequencing of the universal fungal ITS region. The most common taxa were Hypocreales, and Chaetothyriales. Over 10% of the ITS sequences could not be assigned taxonomy at the phylum level. Two of the unclassified OTUs significantly differed between savanna and woodland, had few like sequences in GenBank, and formed new fungal clades with other unclassified RAF from arid plants, highlighting how little study has been done on the RAF of arid ecosystems. Neither plant host or neighbor effected RAF community composition. However, there was a significant difference between RAF communities from woodland vs. savanna, indicating abiotic factors such as temperature and aridity may be more important in structuring these RAF communities than biotic factors such as plant host or neighbor identity. Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EM) were present in juniper as well as pi?on in the woodland site, in contrast with previous research, but did not occur in juniper savanna, suggesting that pi?on can share it?s EM with juniper. RAF richness was lower in hosts that were neighbored by the opposite host. This may indicate competitive exclusion between fungi from different hosts. Characterizing these communities and their responses to environment and neighbor effects is a step toward understanding of the effects of drought on a biome that spans 19 million ha of the American southwest.

Keywords

Arid ecosystems, fungal ITS, juniper savanna, next generation sequencing, pi?on dieback, pi?on juniper woodlands, root associated fungi

External links

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  • Canonical resource URI: http://purl.org/phylo/treebase/phylows/study/TB2:S16316
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