Diversity of fungi associated with hair roots of ericaceous plants is affected by land use. Issue 3 (28th November 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hazard, Christina; Gosling, Paul; Mitchell, Derek T.; Doohan, Fiona M.; Bending, Gary D.
• Is Part Of: FEMS microbiology ecology. Volume 87:Issue 3(2014)
• Page Start: 586
• Page End: 600
• Publication Date: 2013-11-28
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Microbiology -- Periodicals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1574-6941.12247
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0168-6496

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="fem12247-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Culture‐independent molecular studies have provided new insights into the diversity of fungi associating with ericaceous plant roots. However, there is little understanding of the distribution of these fungi across landscapes, or the effects of environmental heterogeneity on ericoid mycorrhizal (ERM) fungal diversity and distribution. Terminal‐restriction fragment length polymorphism and selective sequence analyses of the internal transcribed spacer regions of rDNA were used to infer fungal diversity of bait <italic>Vaccinium macrocarpon</italic> grown in soils from nine peatland sites in Ireland, representing three different land uses (bog, rough grazing and forest plantation) and the fungal communities of field‐collected <italic>Calluna vulgaris</italic> for five of these nine sites. A diverse range of potential ERM fungi were found, and the sampling approach significantly affected the diversity of the fungal community. Despite significant site groupings of the fungal communities associated with <italic>V. macrocarpon</italic> and <italic>C. vulgaris</italic>, fungal communities were significantly dissimilar between sites with different land uses. Soil nitrogen content significantly explained 52% of the variation in the <italic>V. macrocarpon</italic> fungal communities. Evidence suggests that environmental heterogeneity has a role in shaping ERM fungal community composition at the landscape scale.</p> </abstract>