Nature Communications (Mar 2024)
Fungal community composition predicts forest carbon storage at a continental scale
- Mark A. Anthony,
- Leho Tedersoo,
- Bruno De Vos,
- Luc Croisé,
- Henning Meesenburg,
- Markus Wagner,
- Henning Andreae,
- Frank Jacob,
- Paweł Lech,
- Anna Kowalska,
- Martin Greve,
- Genoveva Popova,
- Beat Frey,
- Arthur Gessler,
- Marcus Schaub,
- Marco Ferretti,
- Peter Waldner,
- Vicent Calatayud,
- Roberto Canullo,
- Giancarlo Papitto,
- Aleksander Marinšek,
- Morten Ingerslev,
- Lars Vesterdal,
- Pasi Rautio,
- Helge Meissner,
- Volkmar Timmermann,
- Mike Dettwiler,
- Nadine Eickenscheidt,
- Andreas Schmitz,
- Nina Van Tiel,
- Thomas W. Crowther,
- Colin Averill
Affiliations
- Mark A. Anthony
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich
- Leho Tedersoo
- Mycology and Microbiology Center, University of Tartu
- Bruno De Vos
- Environment & Climate Unit, Research Institute for Nature and Forest
- Luc Croisé
- French National Forest Office
- Henning Meesenburg
- Northwest German Forest Research Institute
- Markus Wagner
- Northwest German Forest Research Institute
- Henning Andreae
- Sachsenforst State Forest
- Frank Jacob
- Sachsenforst State Forest
- Paweł Lech
- Forest Research Institute
- Anna Kowalska
- Forest Research Institute
- Martin Greve
- Research Institute for Forest Ecology and Forestry
- Genoveva Popova
- Executive Environmental Agency at the Ministry of Environment and Water
- Beat Frey
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forests, Snow, and the Landscape Research (WSL)
- Arthur Gessler
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich
- Marcus Schaub
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forests, Snow, and the Landscape Research (WSL)
- Marco Ferretti
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forests, Snow, and the Landscape Research (WSL)
- Peter Waldner
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forests, Snow, and the Landscape Research (WSL)
- Vicent Calatayud
- Mediterranean Center for Environmental Studies
- Roberto Canullo
- Department of Plant Diversity and Ecosystem Management, University of Camerino
- Giancarlo Papitto
- Arma dei Carabinieri Forestry Environmental and Agri-food protection Units
- Aleksander Marinšek
- Slovenian Forestry Institute
- Morten Ingerslev
- Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen
- Lars Vesterdal
- Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen
- Pasi Rautio
- Natural Resources Institute Finland
- Helge Meissner
- Division of Forest and Forest Resources, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research
- Volkmar Timmermann
- Division of Biotechnology and Plant Health, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research
- Mike Dettwiler
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich
- Nadine Eickenscheidt
- State Agency for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia
- Andreas Schmitz
- State Agency for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia
- Nina Van Tiel
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich
- Thomas W. Crowther
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich
- Colin Averill
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46792-w
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 15,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 13
Abstract
Abstract Forest soils harbor hyper-diverse microbial communities which fundamentally regulate carbon and nutrient cycling across the globe. Directly testing hypotheses on how microbiome diversity is linked to forest carbon storage has been difficult, due to a lack of paired data on microbiome diversity and in situ observations of forest carbon accumulation and storage. Here, we investigated the relationship between soil microbiomes and forest carbon across 238 forest inventory plots spanning 15 European countries. We show that the composition and diversity of fungal, but not bacterial, species is tightly coupled to both forest biotic conditions and a seven-fold variation in tree growth rates and biomass carbon stocks when controlling for the effects of dominant tree type, climate, and other environmental factors. This linkage is particularly strong for symbiotic endophytic and ectomycorrhizal fungi known to directly facilitate tree growth. Since tree growth rates in this system are closely and positively correlated with belowground soil carbon stocks, we conclude that fungal composition is a strong predictor of overall forest carbon storage across the European continent.
