Depression of the soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community by the canopy gaps in a Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) plantation on Lushan Mountain, subtropical China

Guiwu Zou; Yuanqiu Liu; Fanqian Kong; Liqin Liao; Guanghua Deng; Xueru Jiang; Junhuo Cai; Wei Liu

doi:10.7717/peerj.10905

Depression of the soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community by the canopy gaps in a Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) plantation on Lushan Mountain, subtropical China

PeerJ. 2021 Mar 15:9:e10905. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10905. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Guiwu Zou^{1

2

3}, Yuanqiu Liu^{1

2}, Fanqian Kong², Liqin Liao^{1

2}, Guanghua Deng¹, Xueru Jiang¹, Junhuo Cai¹, Wei Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Silviculture, Collaborative Innovation Center of Jiangxi Typical Trees Cultivation and Utilization, College of Forestry/College of Art and Landscape, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
² Positioning Observation Station of Forest Ecosystem in Lushan, Lushan National Nature Reserve of Jiangxi, Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China.
³ College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

Abstract

Both canopy gaps (CG) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play key roles in seedling establishment and increasing species diversity in forests. The response of AMF to canopy gaps is poorly understood. To assess the long-term effects of canopy gaps on soil AMF community, we sampled soil from plots in a 50-year Cryptomeria japonica (L.f.) D. Don. plantation, located in Lushan Mountain, subtropical China. We analyzed the AMF community, identified through 454 pyrosequencing, in soil and edaphic characteristics. Both richness and diversity of AMF in CG decreased significantly compared to the closed canopy (CC). The differences of the AMF community composition between CG and CC was also significant. The sharp response of the AMF community appears to be largely driven by vegetation transformation. Soil nutrient content also influenced some taxa, e.g., the low availability of phosphorus increased the abundance of Acaulospora. These results demonstrated that the formation of canopy gaps can depress AMF richness and alter the AMF community, which supported the plant investment hypothesis and accentuated the vital role of AMF-plant symbioses in forest management.

Keywords: AMF; Canopy gaps; Succession; Symbioses.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 31960302, 31400528, 41601244), Natural Science Fonudation of Jiangxi Province (20202BAB205002) and by the CFERN & GENE award funds for ecological papers. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.