Amplicon sequencing dataset of soil fungi and associated environmental variables collected in karst and non-karst sites across Yunnan province, southwest China

Abstract

Fungi are among the most widely distributed organisms on Earth, performing key roles in nutrient cycling, disease, and the global carbon cycle. However, studies on regional-scale fungal assemblage patterns and the underlying drivers, are scarce. The aim of this research was to determine the relative importance of environmental heterogeneity and spatial distance on the metacommunity structure of soil fungi in Yunnan province, southwest China. This dataset is supplementary to research by [1] and presents 12,843 fungal operational taxonomic unit (OTU) sequences, OTU distribution and abundance across 220 samples, OTU taxonomic and ecological annotations, and environmental characteristics of the sites where the samples were collected. Differences in fungal alpha and beta diversity indices between karst and non-karst soils for the full dataset, six class-level (Agaricomycetes, Dothideomycetes, Sordariomycetes, Leotiomycetes, Tremellomycetes, and Eurotiomycetes) and four functional-level (symbiotrophs, pathotrophs, saprotrophs, and ectomycorrhizal fungi) datasets are presented. Keywords: Metabarcoding, Karst, Soil pH, Saprotrophs, Ectomycorrhizal fungi, Mycology, Limestone, Internal transcribed spacer