Temporal approach to identifying ectomycorrhizal community associated with Mongolian pine in a desert environment, northern China

Yue Ren; Guanglei Gao; Guodong Ding; Ying Zhang; Peishan Zhao; Jiayuan Wang

doi:10.1128/spectrum.02026-23

Temporal approach to identifying ectomycorrhizal community associated with Mongolian pine in a desert environment, northern China

Microbiol Spectr. 2023 Sep 14;11(5):e0202623. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.02026-23. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yue Ren^{1

2}, Guanglei Gao^{1

2

3

4}, Guodong Ding^{1

2

3

4}, Ying Zhang^{1

2

4}, Peishan Zhao^{1

2}, Jiayuan Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Yanchi Research Station, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University , Beijing, China.
² Key Laboratory of State Forestry and Grassland Administration on Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University , Beijing, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Efficient Production of Forest Resources, Beijing Forestry University , Beijing, China.
⁴ Engineering Research Center of Forestry Ecological Engineering, Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University , Beijing, China.

Abstract

To date, the ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi community has been widely investigated with aging plantations affected by the pedologic factors. However, knowledge on the effects of phenology induced by climatic factors across the age range remains poorly understood on an intra-annual scale. Here, we sampled the fine roots of Mongolian pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) plantations at different stages of the growing season (from April to September) across three stand ages (27, 34, and 44 yr) in the Mu Us Desert, Northwest China. We aim to disentangle the community composition and structure of EM fungi, as well as the impact of climate on EM fungi. We observed that the 173 distinct EM fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified. Geopora, Inocybe, Tomentella, and Tuber were the most frequent, and their dominance was maintained as stand aging. The richness and community composition were not significantly different with stand aging (P > 0.05). Host phenology and stand age are two important factors that have shaped the EM fungal community. The growing stage affected the beta diversity of the EM fungal community more than stand age, and this variation of the EM fungal community was closely related to seasonal climate, particularly precipitation. This improved information will provide a theoretical basis for the reforestation and rehabilitation of the Mongolian pine plantations using mycorrhizal techniques. IMPORTANCE Ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi are particularly important for host plants in a desert ecosystem. With a high degree of plasticity, EM fungi are largely influenced by host plant and environmental variables and fundamentally contribute to the ability of individuals to adapt to environmental changes. Therefore, the EM fungi are important for Mongolian pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) plantation in a desert ecosystem. Although previous studies have concluded that multiple endogenous and exogenous processes ultimately lead to species-specific temporal patterns in EM fungal populations. We still neglect the effect of host phenology on EM fungal activity. The significance of our study is the interplay between climate-driven EM fungi and plant phenology.

Keywords: Mongolian pine; climate; ectomycorrhizal fungi; fungal diversity and community structure; temporal variation.