Title: The Adverse Effect of Chinese Fir (Cunninghamia Lanceolata) Monoculture Plantations on Soil Nutrient Cycles Mediated by Fungi
Abstract: Considerable natural or secondary forests have been converted to plantations in response to the growing needs of timber, paper, and fuel. Soil fungal communities are sensitive to ecosystem transformation and play an important role in aboveground-belowground linkages and biogeochemical cycling. However, the effect of forest conversion on fungal community structure and functions and driving mechanisms remains unclear. We investigated the response of soil fungal communities from natural broad-leaved forests (NBF) converted to Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) plantations (CFP) in subtropical China with 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and the corresponding changes in soil nutrients, microbial biomass, and enzymatic activities. Forest conversion had an adverse influence on soils and fungal communities, including pH, soil water content, soil organic carbon, available phosphorus, total nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, invertase, urease, protease, acid phosphatase, and fungal alpha diversity. Fungal community composition and structure were also strongly affected by forest conversion. The abundance of Ascomycota decreased with forest conversion, but Basidiomycota showed the opposite reaction. Saprotroph richness increased while symbiotroph richness decreased with forest conversion. Some fungal guilds—dung saprotrophs, lichenized, endophytes, and fungal parasites—were nearly lost in CFP. Ectomycorrhizal fungi were more abundant in the NBF, but arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi showed a higher abundance in the CFP. These changes are all closely related to soil nutrients, microbial biomass, and enzyme activities. Overall, our study emphasizes the adverse effect of NBF conversion to CFP on soil nutrients—C, N, and P cycling mediated by fungi—and recommends replacing monoculture coniferous forests with mixed forests in afforestation to improve soil degradation.
Publication Year: 2022
Publication Date: 2022-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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