Environmental drivers of ectomycorrhizal communities in Europe's temperate oak forests.
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Suz2014_accepted.docx
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Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
Suz, Laura M.
Barsoum, Nadia
Benham, Sue
Dietrich, Hans‐Peter
Fetzer, Karl Dieter
Fischer, Richard
García, Paloma
Gehrman, Joachim
Kristöfel, Ferdinand
Manninger, Miklós
Neagu, Stefan
Nicolas, Manuel
Oldenburger, Jan
Raspe, Stephan
Sánchez, Gerardo
Schröck, Hans Werner
Schubert, Alfred
Verheyen, Kris
Verstraeten, Arne
Bidartondo, Martin I.
Date published
November 2014
Abstract
Ectomycorrhizal fungi are major ecological players in temperate forests, but they are rarely used in measures of forest condition because large‐scale, high‐resolution, standardized and replicated belowground data are scarce. We carried out an analysis of ectomycorrhizas at 22 intensively monitored long‐term oak plots, across nine European countries, covering complex natural and anthropogenic environmental gradients. We found that at large scales, mycorrhizal richness and evenness declined with decreasing soil and root density, and with increasing atmospheric nitrogen deposition. Shifts in mycorrhizas with different functional traits were detected; mycorrhizas with structures specialized for long‐distance transport related differently to most environmental variables than those without. The dominant oak‐specialist with limited soil exploration abilities, responds positively to increasing nitrogen inputs and decreasing . In contrast, , and species with medium‐distance soil exploration abilities, show a consistently negative response. We also determined nitrogen critical loads for moderate (9.5–13.5 kg N/ha/year) and drastic (17 kg N/ha/year) changes in belowground mycorrhizal root communities in temperate oak forests. Overall, we generated the first baseline data for ectomycorrhizal fungi in the oak forests sampled, identified nitrogen pollution as one of their major drivers at large scales and revealed fungi that individually and/or in combination with others can be used as belowground indicators of environmental characteristics.
Funder
| Funder name | Awards |
FP7 People: Marie-Curie Actions, European Union | |
Bentham-Moxon Trust, United Kingdom | |
Imperial College London, United Kingdom | Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environmental initiative |
Natural Environment Research Council, United Kingdom | |
Journal title
Molecular Ecology
Volume
23
Issue
22
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Place of publication
UK
ISSN
0962-1083
eISSN
1365-294X
Date accepted
September 26, 2014
Official URL
Rights statement
In Copyright
Additional information
Author's accepted manuscript.