<i>Cortinarius</i> and <i>Tomentella</i> Fungi Become Dominant Taxa in Taiga Soil after Fire Disturbance

Abstract

Fungi have important ecological functions in the soil of forests, where they decompose organic matter, provide plants with nutrients, increase plant water uptake, and improve plant resistance to adversity, disease, and disturbance. A forest fire presents a serious disturbance of the local ecosystem and can be considered an important component affecting the function of ecosystem biomes; however, the response of soil fungi to fire disturbance is largely unknown. To investigate the effects of fire disturbance on the community composition and diversity of soil fungi in a taiga forest, we collected soil from plots that had undergone a light, moderate, and heavy fire 10 years previously, with the inclusion of a fire-free control. The present soil fungi were characterized using Illumina MiSeq technology, and the sequences were analyzed to identify differences in the community composition and diversity in response to the changed soil physicochemical properties. The results showed that the Chao1 index, which characterizes the alpha diversity of the fungi, did not change significantly. In contrast, the Shannon index increased significantly (p p p p p p < 0.05). This study illustrates that fire disturbance alters the structural composition, diversity, dominance, and relative abundance of the guilds of soil fungal communities in taiga forest, and strongly affected the beta diversity of soil fungi, with AN, MC, pH, AK, and TN being the most important factors affecting their community structure. The results may provide a useful reference for the restoration and rehabilitation of taiga forests after fire disturbance.

Keywords

• soil fungi
• taiga forests
• fire sites
• diversity
• community structure