Forest management and former land use have no effect on soil fungal diversity in uneven-aged mountain high forests
Résumé
Methods On the basis of historical land-use maps drawn between 1862 and 1864 and on historical forest manage‑ment archives, we selected 62 sites in the French Alps with contrasting land-use histories (ancient forests, which were already forested on historical maps vs recent forests, which have recovered following abandonment of pastures) and different durations since last harvest (from 1 to over 50 years). We carried out soil sampling and assessed fungal diversity by metabarcoding analysis. We analysed soil fungal molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU) diversity as a whole and for the main lifestyle groups (such as wood saprotrophic or ectomycorrhizal fungi) using multiple lin‑ear regressions on Shannon’s diversity index and fungal taxonomic composition using canonical correlation analysis.
Results We found no significant effect of harvesting intensity, time since last harvest or land-use history on total fungal MOTU diversity, fungal lifestyle diversity or taxonomic composition. In contrast, we observed significant effects of elevation, pH, organic carbon and available phosphorus content on the taxonomic and functional composition of soil fungal communities.
Conclusions The structure of soil fungal communities (i.e. diversity and species composition) was mainly deter‑mined by elevation and edaphic factors, indicating a high-context dependency, as previously found in similar studies. Our study in mountain forests shows that recent forests established on former pastures had no legacy effect on soil conditions and fungal communities, in contrast to previous results in lowland areas, where recent forests were mainly established on former cropland. Uneven-aged forest management had no effect on fungal diversity, in contrast to previous results observed in even-aged high forests.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs Sylvain Mollier , Georges Kunstler , Jean-Luc Dupouey , Stephen Mulero , Laurent Bergès
Publication : Annals of Forest Science
Date : 2024
Volume : 81
Issue : 1
Pages : 2