PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 23: Soil Ecology
Wednesday, August 10, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Plant community influences on terrestrial fungi in boreal-mixed wood forests.
DeBellis, Tonia1, Kernaghan, Gavin*,2, Widden, Paul1, 1 Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada2 Université Laval, Ste.-Foy, Quebec, Canada
ABSTRACT- Although the fungi of the boreal forest floor are central to many ecosystem processes, we know little about the factors which govern the community structure of the various functional groups, such as mycorrhizal and saprotophic fungi. We therefore investigated the communities of ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECMF) and microfungi (MF) in plots in the southern mixed-wood boreal forest of Quebec with varying overstory tree composition. Soil and mycorrhizal roots were sampled from plots dominated by either Populus tremuloides, Betula papyrifera, or Picea glauca and Abies balsamea, in which the associated understory plant compositions and soil chemistries had been recorded. ECMF were analyzed morphologically and by DNA sequencing and MF were isolated using the soil washing technique. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed a strong influence of overstory tree composition on ECMF species distributions, with Betula supporting the most distinct and diverse ECMF assemblage. Conversely, microfungal community structure was more closely related to understory plant species composition.
Key words: ectomycorrhizal fungi, microfungi, fungal community structure, plant fungal interactions