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Divergent Responses of Soil Fungi Functional Groups to Short-term Warming

  • Environmental Microbiology
  • Published:
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An Erratum to this article was published on 30 July 2014

Abstract

Soil fungi fill pivotal ecological roles in biogeochemical processes, particularly dominating decomposition of lignin. Little is known, however, about the responses of different fungal groups to climate warming with respect to bacteria. In this study, using barcode pyrosequencing, we showed that short-term (15 months) of field exposure of an alpine meadow to warming (elevated 1 and 2 °C) did not markedly alter the overall soil fungal community structures and α-diversity on Tibetan Plateau, but the average β-diversity dramatically decreased in response to warming. However, soil respiration rates were stimulated in the growing season, which significantly (P < 0.001) correlated with soil temperature. Particularly, warming triggered dramatic shifts in the community structure of dominate Ascomycota and rare taxa (relative abundance < 0.1 %). In addition, the abundances of specific Basidiomycota-affiliated members significantly increased, while Ascomycota showed a range of responses to warming. Collectively, we conclude that the fungal communities are resistant to short-term warming, though variations are observed in certain species and rare taxa. This report indicates that changes in a relatively small subset of the soil fungal community are sufficient to produce substantial changes in function, such as CO2 efflux rates.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Maureen L. Coleman from University of Chicago for valuable comments on this manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China to J. Xiong (41101228) and H. Chu (41071167), the ‘Hundred Talents Program’ of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to X. Xue and H. Chu, and the KC Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Jinbo Xiong

  2. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, CAS, Nanjing, China

    Jinbo Xiong, Huaibo Sun & Haiyan Chu

  3. Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Cold and Arid Regions, Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, CAS, Lanzhou, China

    Fei Peng & Xian Xue

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  1. Jinbo Xiong
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  2. Fei Peng
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  4. Xian Xue
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  5. Haiyan Chu
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Correspondence to Jinbo Xiong.

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Xiong, J., Peng, F., Sun, H. et al. Divergent Responses of Soil Fungi Functional Groups to Short-term Warming. Microb Ecol 68, 708–715 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-014-0385-6

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