Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Monika Malicka, Franco Magurno, Zofia Piotrowska-Seget
Summary: The differences in species composition and community structures indicate that soil pollution is the main factor negatively affecting AMF diversity. The contaminated site AMF communities were dominated by fungal generalists with wide ecological tolerance.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Xiaocui Ma, Xia Xu, Qinghong Geng, Yiqi Luo, Chenghui Ju, Qian Li, Yan Zhou
Summary: This study aimed to explore the global distribution pattern and key predictors of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) diversity and abundance. It was found that cold climate zones had lower AMF diversity. Grassland ecosystems tended to have higher AMF diversity and abundance. Soil available phosphorus (P) and latitude were identified as the most important predictors of AMF diversity. Soil available P and soil pH were the main predictors for the global distribution of AMF abundance. The findings advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the distribution patterns of mycorrhizal fungal diversity and abundance at the global scale.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Yiheng Hu, Laszlo Irinyi, Minh Thuy Vi Hoang, Tavish Eenjes, Abigail Graetz, Eric A. Stone, Wieland Meyer, Benjamin Schwessinger, John P. Rathjen
Summary: Our study compared classification and community composition analysis pipelines using different sequencing technologies for fungal communities. We found that sequence alignment against a fungal-specific database achieved the highest accuracy of species identification. Applying cutoffs to the query coverage of each read or contig significantly improved the classification accuracy and community composition analysis without major data loss. Our study also generated draft genome assemblies for three fungal species that were not present in genome databases. This study provides a practical guide for metagenomics analyses focusing on fungi.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Cheng Gao, Pierre-Emmanuel Courty, Nelle Varoquaux, Benjamin Cole, Liliam Montoya, Ling Xu, Elizabeth Purdom, John Vogel, Robert B. Hutmacher, Jeffery A. Dahlberg, Devin Coleman-Derr, Peggy G. Lemaux, John W. Taylor
Summary: The shifts in adaptive strategies during ecological succession are crucial to ecology, particularly in communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) mutualistic with sorghum. This study reveals the correlation between AMF species shift and sorghum genes involved in signaling, nutrient exchange, and water uptake. These findings provide new insights into AMF adaptive evolution and have implications for sustainable agriculture.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Nini Lu, Peng Zhang, Ping Wang, Xinjie Wang, Baoming Ji, Junpeng Mu
Summary: The AM fungal communities in Chinese fir forests were found to vary with different forest patterns. Environmental factors such as soil pH and nutrient content significantly influenced the composition of AM fungal communities.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2022)
Review
Plant Sciences
Songlin Fei, Stephanie N. Kivlin, Grant M. Domke, Insu Jo, Elizabeth A. LaRue, Richard P. Phillips
Summary: First principles predict that there is a relationship between plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity, but this relationship is inconsistent on larger scales, likely due to different relationships between different mycorrhizal fungal guilds and plant diversity, scale dependency, and lack of coordinated sampling efforts. Understanding the coupling between plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity across scales is important for predicting the ecosystem consequences of species gains and losses.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Martina Vasutova, Martin Jirousek, Michal Hajek
Summary: The study revealed that fungal communities in boreal ecosystems are primarily influenced by substrate identity rather than site differences. Only a few fungi behave as generalists across different plant species, while most specific fungi are found in dead parts of specific plants.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Michael Staab, Xiaojuan Liu, Thorsten Assmann, Helge Bruelheide, Francois Buscot, Walter Durka, Alexandra Erfmeier, Alexandra-Maria Klein, Keping Ma, Stefan Michalski, Tesfaye Wubet, Bernhard Schmid, Andreas Schuldt
Summary: According to the study, plant phylogenetic diversity has a stronger influence on the community structure of co-occurring organisms across trophic levels, increasing the diversity of predatory arthropods while decreasing herbivorous arthropod diversity.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Xin Guo, Ping Wang, Xinjie Wang, Yaoming Li, Baoming Ji
Summary: This study reveals that the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on plant growth vary due to plant-AMF specificity. The native AMF from Poa annua shows broad-spectrum benefits on various plants, indicating its potential utilization in the restoration of desert vegetation.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Yikang Cheng, Gemma Rutten, Xiang Liu, Miaojun Ma, Zhiping Song, Nadia I. I. Maaroufi, Shurong Zhou
Summary: Through a long-term nitrogen addition experiment, we found that nitrogen enrichment has different effects on the diversity of root-associated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities, which is related to changes in soil properties and/or host plant functional structure. Moreover, we found that plant height plays a crucial role in driving the response of AMF diversity to nitrogen enrichment.
Review
Plant Sciences
Taiqiang Li, Wenke Yang, Shimao Wu, Marc-Andre Selosse, Jiangyun Gao
Summary: This review highlights the importance of fungal symbiosis in the life cycle of orchids and their diversity. It discusses the sources and influencing factors of fungal diversity, providing important insights for orchid conservation and research.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jiejie Sun, Bo Jiang, Weigao Yuan, Jinru Zhu, Jiejie Jiao, Danting Wu, Hui Xia, Xuan Xu, Chuping Wu
Summary: Global climate change and human activities have threatened forest biodiversity and productivity. Understanding the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship is crucial for forest management. Research shows different correlations between biomass and environmental factors in pine forests, mixed forests, and broad-leaved forests, suggesting the need for differentiated management plans. Positive management is recommended for pine forests and mixed forests, while allowing natural succession in broad-leaved forests.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Nur Edy, Henry Novero Barus, Reiner Finkeldey, Andrea Polle
Summary: The transformation of tropical lowland rain forests into rubber tree and oil palm plantations leads to the loss of vegetation diversity and affects the community of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). This study found that generalist AMF are resistant to the removal of host species richness, but oil palm and rubber tree roots exhibit a significant reduction in AMF richness compared to rainforest roots.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Caitlyn C. A. Horsch, Pedro M. M. Antunes, Cynthia M. M. Kallenbach
Summary: Life-history traits vary among arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal families, which can affect hyphal nutrient acquisition efficiency, host nutrition, and plant health. However, the effects of AM fungal community life-history strategies and trait diversity on host nutrient acquisition are poorly understood.
Article
Agronomy
Rui Zhong, Chao Xia, Yawen Ju, Xingxu Zhang, Tingyu Duan, Zhibiao Nan, Chunjie Li
Summary: This study found that E. gansusensis endophyte increased root-associated AM fungal diversity under drought conditions, while decreasing diversity under water addition treatment. Aboveground biomass was closely related to the abundance of Funneliformis in the root, and soil nitrogen and phosphorus were positively related to the diversity of the rhizosphere soil AM fungal community.
Article
Ecology
Remy Beugnon, Wensheng Bu, Helge Bruelheide, Andrea Davrinche, Jianqing Du, Sylvia Haider, Matthias Kunz, Goddert von Oheimb, Maria D. D. Perles-Garcia, Mariem Saadani, Thomas Scholten, Steffen Seitz, Bala Singavarapu, Stefan Trogisch, Yanfen Wang, Tesfaye Wubet, Kai Xue, Bo Yang, Simone Cesarz, Nico Eisenhauer
Summary: This study conducted in a Chinese subtropical forest experiment revealed a strong positive correlation between soil microbial biomass and soil carbon concentrations. It was found that an increase in tree productivity and tree root diameter led to an increase in soil carbon concentration, while an increase in litterfall C:N content resulted in a decrease in soil carbon concentration. Tree functional traits also modulated microenvironmental conditions, with significant consequences for soil microbial biomass.
ECOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Yi Li, Yuan-Bao Du, Jing-Ting Chen, Ming-Qiang Wang, Shi-Kun Guo, Andreas Schuldt, Arong Luo, Peng-Fei Guo, Xiang-Cheng Mi, Xiao-Juan Liu, Ke-Ping Ma, Helge Bruelheide, Douglas Chesters, Xuan Liu, Chao-Dong Zhu
Summary: Global biodiversity decline and its cascading effects through trophic interactions pose a severe threat to human society. Establishing the impacts of biodiversity decline requires a more thorough understanding of multi-trophic interactions and, more specifically, the effects that loss of diversity in primary producers has on multi-trophic community assembly.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Lubomir Tichy, Irena Axmanova, Juergen Dengler, Riccardo Guarino, Florian Jansen, Gabriele Midolo, Michael P. P. Nobis, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, Svetlana Acic, Fabio Attorre, Erwin Bergmeier, Idoia Biurrun, Gianmaria Bonari, Helge Bruelheide, Juan Antonio Campos, Andraz Carni, Alessandro Chiarucci, Mirjana Cuk, Renata Custerevska, Yakiv Didukh, Daniel Dite, Zuzana Dite, Tetiana Dziuba, Giuliano Fanelli, Eduardo Fernandez-Pascual, Emmanuel Garbolino, Rosario G. G. Gavilan, Jean-Claude Gegout, Ulrich Graf, Behlul Guler, Michal Hajek, Stephan M. M. Hennekens, Ute Jandt, Anni Jaskova, Borja Jimenez-Alfaro, Philippe Julve, Stephan Kambach, Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Gerhard Karrer, Ali Kavgaci, Ilona Knollova, Anna Kuzemko, Filip Kuzmic, Flavia Landucci, Attila Lengyel, Jonathan Lenoir, Corrado Marceno, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Pavel Novak, Aaron Perez-Haase, Tomas Peterka, Remigiusz Pielech, Alessandro Pignatti, Valerijus Rasomavicius, Solvita Rusina, Arne Saatkamp, Urban Silc, Zeljko Skvorc, Jean-Paul Theurillat, Thomas Wohlgemuth, Milan Chytry
Summary: This study aims to create a harmonized data set of Ellenberg-type indicator values applicable at the European scale by incorporating indicator values from other European regions. The researchers collected and compared data from 13 data sets and provided a new data set of Ellenberg-type indicator values for 8908 European vascular plant species.
JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biology
Jing-Ting Chen, Ming-Qiang Wang, Yi Li, Douglas Chesters, Arong Luo, Wei Zhang, Peng-Fei Guo, Shi-Kun Guo, Qing-Song Zhou, Ke-Ping Ma, Goddert von Oheimb, Matthias Kunz, Nai-Li Zhang, Xiao-Juan Liu, Helge Bruelheide, Andreas Schuldt, Chao-Dong Zhu
Summary: Human-induced biodiversity loss negatively affects ecosystem function, but the interactive effects of biodiversity change across trophic levels remain insufficiently understood. We sampled arboreal spiders and lepidopteran larvae across seasons in a subtropical tree diversity experiment, and then disentangled the links between tree diversity and arthropod predator diversity by deconstructing the pathways among multiple components of diversity (taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional) with structural equation models. Our study highlights the importance of an integrated approach based on multiple biodiversity components in understanding the consequences of biodiversity loss in multitrophic communities.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ellen Desie, Juan Zuo, Kris Verheyen, Ika Djukic, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, Harald Auge, Nadia Barsoum, Christel Baum, Helge Bruelheide, Nico Eisenhauer, Heike Feldhaar, Olga Ferlian, Dominique Gravel, Herve Jactel, Inger Kappel Schmidt, Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas, Celine Meredieu, Simone Mereu, Christian Messier, Lourdes Morillas, Charles Nock, Alain Paquette, Quentin Ponette, Peter B. Reich, Javier Roales, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Steffen Seitz, Anja Schmidt, Artur Stefanski, Stefan Trogisch, Inge van Halder, Martin Weih, Laura J. Williams, Bo Yang, Bart Muys
Summary: Tree species diversity has a significant impact on litter decomposition in forests. Our study, conducted in 15 tree diversity experiments across three continents, found that tree identity has a significant effect on decomposition, while tree species richness does not. Additionally, litter quality, stand age, and density also influence decomposition.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Review
Ecology
Alexander Keller, Markus J. Ankenbrand, Helge Bruelheide, Stefanie Dekeyzer, Brian J. Enquist, Mohammad Bagher Erfanian, Daniel S. Falster, Rachael Gallagher, Jennifer Hammock, Jens Kattge, Sara D. Leonhardt, Joshua S. Madin, Brian Maitner, Margot Neyret, Renske E. Onstein, William D. Pearse, Jorrit H. Poelen, Roberto Salguero-Gomez, Florian D. Schneider, Aniko B. Toth, Caterina Penone
Summary: Traits play a crucial role in ecological and evolutionary sciences, helping researchers understand the function of organisms and their interactions with the environment. However, there are challenges in measuring, compiling, and analyzing trait data. This article provides 10 simple rules as a guide to making critical decisions and promoting good practice in collecting and managing trait data for reuse by the research community.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tom Broeg, Michael Blaschek, Steffen Seitz, Ruhollah Taghizadeh-Mehrjardi, Simone Zepp, Thomas Scholten
Summary: This study tests the transferability of soil organic carbon (SOC) models for cropland soils using five different types of covariates. The results show that satellite and combined models are transferable, but their accuracy declines. Additionally, mixed-data models significantly improve the accuracies of satellite, terrain, and combined models, while they have no effect on climate models and decrease the models based on soil covariates.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Andreas Schuldt, Xiaojuan Liu, Francois Buscot, Helge Bruelheide, Alexandra Erfmeier, Jin-Sheng He, Alexandra-Maria Klein, Keping Ma, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Bernhard Schmid, Thomas Scholten, Zhiyao Tang, Stefan Trogisch, Christian Wirth, Tesfaye Wubet, Michael Staab
Summary: Carbon-focused climate mitigation strategies are important in forests, but we need better understanding of their impact on biodiversity. A study using a large dataset from subtropical forests found that aboveground carbon was not strongly related to multitrophic diversity, while total carbon including belowground carbon was a significant predictor. Relationships were nonlinear and strongest for lower trophic levels. Tree species richness and stand age influenced these relationships, suggesting long-term forest regeneration is effective in reconciling carbon and biodiversity targets. This highlights the need to carefully evaluate the biodiversity benefits of climate-oriented management.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Guillaume Lentendu, Estelle P. Bruni, Claudine Ah-Peng, Junichi Fujinuma, Yasuhiro Kubota, Juan Lorite, Julio Penas, Shuyin Huang, Dominique Strasberg, Pascal Vittoz, Edward A. D. Mitchell
Summary: By using a filtration-sedimentation method, we improved the recovery of soil protist environmental DNA while reducing the co-extraction of non-target organisms. The method showed a 2-3 fold enrichment in shelled protists, with a decrease in fungi and plants. The findings suggest that this method can significantly enhance the resolution of soil protist diversity estimation in eDNA metabarcoding studies.
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2023)
Article
Geography, Physical
Katharina Schwarzkopf, Steffen Seitz, Michael Fritz, Thomas Scholten, Peter Kuehn
Summary: Ice wedge polygons on steep slopes in West Greenland are stable despite inclinations of over 30 degrees, and this stability is attributed to the soil hydrodynamics, local climate regime, and the presence of dense shrub tundra that absorbs water. This study highlights the importance of these factors in determining landscape stability and the intensity of solifluction processes in areas with geomorphological gradients and rising air temperatures.
PERMAFROST AND PERIGLACIAL PROCESSES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Heike Heklau, Nicole Schindler, Nico Eisenhauer, Olga Ferlian, Helge Bruelheide
Summary: This study investigated the relationship and changes of mycorrhization rates of 10 deciduous trees from winter to spring to early summer. The results showed that except for Aesculus hippocastanum and Acer pseudoplatanus, which formed only one type of mycorrhiza, the other tree species had both arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) and ectomycorrhiza (EM) at different times. The mycorrhization rates were lowest in May, but no differences were observed between December and March. The mycorrhization rates of different types were not correlated over time at the individual tree level, indicating asynchronous variation between AM and EM mycorrhization. At the community level, increased biodiversity led to more asynchrony in mycorrhization, suggesting its importance in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Bala Singavarapu, Jianqing Du, Remy Beugnon, Simone Cesarz, Nico Eisenhauer, Kai Xue, Yanfen Wang, Helge Bruelheide, Tesfaye Wubet
Summary: Loss of multifunctional microbial communities can negatively affect ecosystem services, especially forest soil nutrient cycling. Therefore, exploration of the genomic potential of soil microbial communities, particularly their constituting subcommunities and taxa for nutrient cycling, is vital to get an in-depth mechanistic understanding for better management of forest soil ecosystems.
MICROBIOLOGY SPECTRUM
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Pascal Edelmann, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Didem Ambarli, Claus Baessler, Francois Buscot, Martin Hofrichter, Bjorn Hoppe, Harald Kellner, Cynthia Minnich, Julia Moll, Derek Persoh, Sebastian Seibold, Claudia Seilwinder, Ernst-Detlef Schulze, Stephan Woellauer, Werner Borken
Summary: A long-term experiment in Germany suggests that climate, soil traits, and forest structure have significant impacts on the decay process and mass loss of deadwood. Soil nutrient content and precipitation have negative effects on mass loss, while temperature has a positive effect. Forest structure has a small influence on mass loss. The results indicate that at the regional scale, organismic diversity and microbial activity have a stronger impact on the decay process than exogenous factors.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Shuyin Huang, Guillaume Lentendu, Junichi Fujinuma, Takayuki Shiono, Yasuhiro Kubota, Edward A. D. Mitchell
Summary: The development of high-throughput sequencing of environmental DNA has facilitated the study of soil microbial diversity patterns. This study compared two sampling approaches for soil protists along an elevation gradient in Japan and found that sampling a single plot per elevation band was sufficient to estimate soil micro-eukaryotic diversity patterns along elevation gradients.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Zhen-Huan Guan, Zuonan Cao, Xiao Gang Li, Thomas Scholten, Peter Kuehn, Lin Wang, Rui-Peng Yu, Jin-Sheng He
Summary: Plants can modulate their phosphorus acquisition strategies to adapt to varying soil phosphorus availability. When soil phosphorus is low, nitrogen addition increases the release of carboxylates from plant roots and leads to a higher percentage of colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), along with decreased root length and specific root length (SRL). When soil phosphorus is higher, nitrogen addition increases the plant's demand for phosphorus, accompanied by an increase in root diameter and phosphatase activity.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
