Fungal Communities and Functional Guilds Shift Along an Elevational Gradient in the Southern Appalachian Mountains
Abstract
Nitrogen deposition alters forest ecosystems particularly in high elevation, montane habitats where nitrogen deposition is greatest and continues to increase. We collected soils across an elevational (788–1940 m) gradient, encompassing both abiotic (soil chemistry) and biotic (vegetation community) gradients, at eight locations in the southern Appalachian Mountains of southwestern North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. We measured soil chemistry (total N, C, extractable PO4, soil pH, cation exchange capacity [ECEC], percent base saturation [% BS]) and dissected soil fungal communities using ITS2 metabarcode Illumina MiSeq sequencing. Total soil N, C, PO4, % BS, and pH increased with elevation and plateaued at approximately 1400 m, whereas ECEC linearly increased and C/N decreased with elevation. Fungal communities differed among locations and were correlated with all chemical variables, except PO4, whereas OTU richness increased with total N. Several ecological guilds (i.e., ectomycorrhizae, saprotrophs, plant pathogens) differed in abundance among locations; specifically, saprotroph abundance, primarily attributable to genus Mortierella, was positively correlated with elevation. Ectomycorrhizae declined with total N and soil pH and increased with total C and PO4 where plant pathogens increased with total N and decreased with total C. Finally, our results demonstrate significant turnover in taxonomic and functional fungal groups across elevationalmore »
- Authors:
-
- Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States). Division of Biology; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Biosciences Division
- Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States). Dept. of Forest Products; Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States). Dept. of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology, and Plant Pathology
- US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA)., Otto, NC (United States). Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Center for Forest Watershed Research, Coweeta Hydrologic Lab.
- Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States). Division of Biology
- Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States). Dept. of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology, and Plant Pathology
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1460223
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; DEB0218001; DEB0823293
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Microbial Ecology
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 76; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0095-3628
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Veach, Allison M., Stokes, C. Elizabeth, Knoepp, Jennifer, Jumpponen, Ari, and Baird, Richard. Fungal Communities and Functional Guilds Shift Along an Elevational Gradient in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1007/s00248-017-1116-6.
Veach, Allison M., Stokes, C. Elizabeth, Knoepp, Jennifer, Jumpponen, Ari, & Baird, Richard. Fungal Communities and Functional Guilds Shift Along an Elevational Gradient in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. United States. doi:10.1007/s00248-017-1116-6.
Veach, Allison M., Stokes, C. Elizabeth, Knoepp, Jennifer, Jumpponen, Ari, and Baird, Richard. Mon .
"Fungal Communities and Functional Guilds Shift Along an Elevational Gradient in the Southern Appalachian Mountains". United States. doi:10.1007/s00248-017-1116-6. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1460223.
@article{osti_1460223,
title = {Fungal Communities and Functional Guilds Shift Along an Elevational Gradient in the Southern Appalachian Mountains},
author = {Veach, Allison M. and Stokes, C. Elizabeth and Knoepp, Jennifer and Jumpponen, Ari and Baird, Richard},
abstractNote = {Nitrogen deposition alters forest ecosystems particularly in high elevation, montane habitats where nitrogen deposition is greatest and continues to increase. We collected soils across an elevational (788–1940 m) gradient, encompassing both abiotic (soil chemistry) and biotic (vegetation community) gradients, at eight locations in the southern Appalachian Mountains of southwestern North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. We measured soil chemistry (total N, C, extractable PO4, soil pH, cation exchange capacity [ECEC], percent base saturation [% BS]) and dissected soil fungal communities using ITS2 metabarcode Illumina MiSeq sequencing. Total soil N, C, PO4, % BS, and pH increased with elevation and plateaued at approximately 1400 m, whereas ECEC linearly increased and C/N decreased with elevation. Fungal communities differed among locations and were correlated with all chemical variables, except PO4, whereas OTU richness increased with total N. Several ecological guilds (i.e., ectomycorrhizae, saprotrophs, plant pathogens) differed in abundance among locations; specifically, saprotroph abundance, primarily attributable to genus Mortierella, was positively correlated with elevation. Ectomycorrhizae declined with total N and soil pH and increased with total C and PO4 where plant pathogens increased with total N and decreased with total C. Finally, our results demonstrate significant turnover in taxonomic and functional fungal groups across elevational gradients which facilitate future predictions on forest ecosystem change in the southern Appalachians as nitrogen deposition rates increase and regional temperature and precipitation regimes shift.},
doi = {10.1007/s00248-017-1116-6},
journal = {Microbial Ecology},
number = 1,
volume = 76,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {12}
}
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
FUNGuild: An open annotation tool for parsing fungal community datasets by ecological guild
journal, April 2016
- Nguyen, Nhu H.; Song, Zewei; Bates, Scott T.
- Fungal Ecology, Vol. 20
UCHIME improves sensitivity and speed of chimera detection
journal, June 2011
- Edgar, Robert C.; Haas, Brian J.; Clemente, Jose C.
- Bioinformatics, Vol. 27, Issue 16
Community and Ecosystem Responses to Elevational Gradients: Processes, Mechanisms, and Insights for Global Change
journal, November 2013
- Sundqvist, Maja K.; Sanders, Nathan J.; Wardle, David A.
- Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, Vol. 44, Issue 1
Morphological and Functional Diversity of Ectomycorrhizal Fungi on Roan Mountain (NC/TN)
journal, March 2005
- Bird, Claire; McCleneghan, Coleman
- Southeastern Naturalist, Vol. 4, Issue 1
Decline of ectomycorrhizal fungi in Europe
journal, April 1991
- Arnolds, Eef
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Vol. 35, Issue 2-3
The contribution of the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory to developing an understanding of long-term (1934–2008) changes in managed and unmanaged forests
journal, March 2011
- Elliott, Katherine J.; Vose, James M.
- Forest Ecology and Management, Vol. 261, Issue 5
Microfungi from Bark of Healthy and Damaged American Beech, Fraser Fir, and Eastern Hemlock Trees During an All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in Forests of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
journal, March 2007
- Baird, Richard E.; Watson, Clarence E.; Woolfolk, Sandra
- Southeastern Naturalist, Vol. 6, Issue 1
A meta-analysis of mycorrhizal responses to nitrogen, phosphorus, and atmospheric CO2 in field studies
journal, July 2004
- Treseder, Kathleen K.
- New Phytologist, Vol. 164, Issue 2
Stipitate hydnoid fungi of the temperate southeastern United States
journal, September 2013
- Baird, Richard; Wallace, Lisa E.; Baker, Gerald
- Fungal Diversity, Vol. 62, Issue 1
Cryptococcus spp isolated from dust microhabitat in Brazilian libraries
journal, January 2012
- Leite, Diniz P.; Amadio, Janaina V. R. S.; Martins, Evelin R.
- Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, Vol. 7, Issue 1
Naive Bayesian Classifier for Rapid Assignment of rRNA Sequences into the New Bacterial Taxonomy
journal, June 2007
- Wang, Q.; Garrity, G. M.; Tiedje, J. M.
- Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 73, Issue 16
Comparison of ectomycorrhizal–basidiomycete communities in red spruce versus northern hardwood forests of West Virginia
journal, April 1986
- Bills, G. F.; Holtzman, G. I.; Miller Jr., O. K.
- Canadian Journal of Botany, Vol. 64, Issue 4
Interwoven branches of the plant and fungal trees of life: Letters
journal, February 2010
- Arnold, A. E.; Lamit, Louis J.; Gehring, Catherine A.
- New Phytologist, Vol. 185, Issue 4
Changes in Fungal Community Composition in Response to Elevated Atmospheric CO2 and Nitrogen Fertilization Varies with Soil Horizon
journal, January 2013
- Weber, Carolyn F.; Vilgalys, Rytas; Kuske, Cheryl R.
- Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol. 4
A brief guide to model selection, multimodel inference and model averaging in behavioural ecology using Akaike’s information criterion
journal, August 2010
- Symonds, Matthew R. E.; Moussalli, Adnan
- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, Vol. 65, Issue 1
Belowground Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Community Change over a Nitrogen Deposition Gradient in Alaska
journal, January 2002
- Lilleskov, Erik A.; Fahey, Timothy J.; Horton, Thomas R.
- Ecology, Vol. 83, Issue 1
Hyperdiversity of ectomycorrhizal fungus assemblages on oak seedlings in mixed forests in the southern Appalachian Mountains: DIVERSITY OF OAK SEEDLING ECTOMYCORRHIZAE
journal, February 2005
- Walker, John F.; K. Miller, Orson; Horton, Jonathan L.
- Molecular Ecology, Vol. 14, Issue 3
Barcoded Primers Used in Multiplex Amplicon Pyrosequencing Bias Amplification
journal, December 2011
- Berry, David; Ben Mahfoudh, Karim; Wagner, Michael
- Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 78, Issue 2
Nitrogen Saturation in Temperate Forest Ecosystems
journal, November 1998
- Aber, John; McDowell, William; Nadelhoffer, Knute
- BioScience, Vol. 48, Issue 11
Nitrogen fertilizer dose alters fungal communities in sugarcane soil and rhizosphere
journal, March 2015
- Paungfoo-Lonhienne, Chanyarat; Yeoh, Yun Kit; Kasinadhuni, Naga Rup Pinaki
- Scientific Reports, Vol. 5, Issue 1
Saprophytic fungal communities change in diversity and species composition across a volcanic soil chronosequence at Sierra del Chichinautzin, Mexico
journal, March 2010
- Reverchon, Frédérique; María del Ortega-Larrocea, Pilar; Pérez-Moreno, Jesús
- Annals of Microbiology, Vol. 60, Issue 2
Nitrogen fertilization reduces diversity and alters community structure of active fungi in boreal ecosystems
journal, August 2007
- Allison, Steven D.; Hanson, China A.; Treseder, Kathleen K.
- Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Vol. 39, Issue 8
Species composition of an ectomycorrhizal fungal community along a local nutrient gradient in a boreal forest
journal, June 2006
- Toljander, Jonas F.; Eberhardt, Ursula; Toljander, Ylva K.
- New Phytologist, Vol. 170, Issue 4
Microfungi of Forest Litter from Healthy American Beech, Fraser Fir, and Eastern Hemlock Stands in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
journal, December 2009
- Baird, Richard E.; Woolfolk, Sandra; Watson, Clarence E.
- Southeastern Naturalist, Vol. 8, Issue 4
High-throughput DNA sequencing - concepts and limitations
journal, May 2010
- Kircher, Martin; Kelso, Janet
- BioEssays, Vol. 32, Issue 6
Specific impacts of beech and Norway spruce on the structure and diversity of the rhizosphere and soil microbial communities
journal, June 2016
- Uroz, S.; Oger, P.; Tisserand, E.
- Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue 1
Rhododendron Decline in the Great Smoky Mountains and Surrounding Areas: Intensive Site Study of Biotic and Abiotic Parameters Associated with the Decline
journal, March 2014
- Baird, Richard; Wood-Jones, Alicia; Varco, Jac
- Southeastern Naturalist, Vol. 13, Issue 1
Haplotype Mapping of a Diploid Non-Meiotic Organism Using Existing and Induced Aneuploidies
journal, January 2008
- Legrand, Melanie; Forche, Anja; Selmecki, Anna
- PLoS Genetics, Vol. 4, Issue 1
Status and distribution of stipitate hydnoid fungi in Scottish coniferous forests
journal, October 2002
- Newton, A. C.; Holden, E.; Davy, L. M.
- Biological Conservation, Vol. 107, Issue 2
Global diversity and geography of soil fungi
journal, November 2014
- Tedersoo, Leho; Bahram, Mohammad; Põlme, Sergei
- Science, Vol. 346, Issue 6213
The influence of soil properties on the structure of bacterial and fungal communities across land-use types
journal, September 2008
- Lauber, Christian L.; Strickland, Michael S.; Bradford, Mark A.
- Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Vol. 40, Issue 9
Diversity and density of the EM fungal community present in high elevation Fraser fir forests of Great Smoky Mountains National Park
journal, May 2014
- Baird, Richard; Stokes, C. Elizabeth; Frampton, John
- North American Fungi, Vol. 9, Issue 0
Macrofungus communities correlate with moisture and nitrogen abundance in two old-growth conifer forests, Olympic National Park, Washington, USA
journal, June 2004
- Trudell, Steven A.; Edmonds, Robert L.
- Canadian Journal of Botany, Vol. 82, Issue 6
Soil microbial communities are shaped by vegetation type and park age in cities under cold climate: Park Soil Microbial Communities
journal, February 2017
- Hui, Nan; Jumpponen, Ari; Francini, Gaia
- Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 19, Issue 3
Spore dispersal of a resupinate ectomycorrhizal fungus, Tomentella sublilacina, via soil food webs
journal, September 2005
- Lilleskov, Erik A.; Bruns, Thomas D.
- Mycologia, Vol. 97, Issue 4
Introducing mothur: Open-Source, Platform-Independent, Community-Supported Software for Describing and Comparing Microbial Communities
journal, October 2009
- Schloss, P. D.; Westcott, S. L.; Ryabin, T.
- Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 75, Issue 23, p. 7537-7541
Mycorrhizal symbionts of Pisonia grandis and P. sechellarum in Seychelles: identification of mycorrhizal fungi and description of new Tomentella species
journal, May 2010
- Suvi, Triin; Tedersoo, Leho; Abarenkov, Kessy
- Mycologia, Vol. 102, Issue 3
Biological indices of soil quality: an ecosystem case study of their use
journal, November 2000
- Knoepp, Jennifer D.; Coleman, David C.; Crossley, D. A.
- Forest Ecology and Management, Vol. 138, Issue 1-3
ITS primers with enhanced specificity for basidiomycetes - application to the identification of mycorrhizae and rusts
journal, April 1993
- Gardes, M.; Bruns, T. D.
- Molecular Ecology, Vol. 2, Issue 2
Estimates of the Atmospheric Deposition of Sulfur and Nitrogen Species: Clean Air Status and Trends Network, 1990−2000
journal, June 2002
- Baumgardner,, Ralph E.; Lavery, Thomas F.; Rogers, Christopher M.
- Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 36, Issue 12
Plant species and functional group effects on abiotic and microbial soil properties and plant-soil feedback responses in two grasslands
journal, September 2006
- Bezemer, T. Martijn; Lawson, Clare S.; Hedlund, Katarina
- Journal of Ecology, Vol. 94, Issue 5
Barcoded Primers Used in Multiplex Amplicon Pyrosequencing Bias Amplification
journal, September 2011
- Berry, David; Ben Mahfoudh, Karim; Wagner, Michael
- Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 77, Issue 21
How are plant and fungal communities linked to each other in belowground ecosystems? A massively parallel pyrosequencing analysis of the association specificity of root-associated fungi and their host plants
journal, August 2013
- Toju, Hirokazu; Sato, Hirotoshi; Yamamoto, Satoshi
- Ecology and Evolution, Vol. 3, Issue 9
Nitrogen Pollution in the Northeastern United States: Sources, Effects, and Management Options
journal, January 2003
- Driscoll, Charles T.; Whitall, David; Aber, John
- BioScience, Vol. 53, Issue 4
Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region as a universal DNA barcode marker for Fungi
journal, March 2012
- Schoch, C. L.; Seifert, K. A.; Huhndorf, S.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 109, Issue 16
454 Pyrosequencing and Sanger sequencing of tropical mycorrhizal fungi provide similar results but reveal substantial methodological biases
journal, July 2010
- Tedersoo, Leho; Nilsson, R. Henrik; Abarenkov, Kessy
- New Phytologist, Vol. 188, Issue 1
Nitrogen deposition and cycling across an elevation and vegetation gradient in southern Appalachian forests
journal, June 2008
- Knoepp, Jennifer D.; Vose, James M.; Swank, Wayne T.
- International Journal of Environmental Studies, Vol. 65, Issue 3
Global diversity and distribution of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
journal, November 2011
- Kivlin, Stephanie N.; Hawkes, Christine V.; Treseder, Kathleen K.
- Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Vol. 43, Issue 11
Fungal community analysis by high-throughput sequencing of amplified markers - a user's guide
journal, March 2013
- Lindahl, Björn D.; Nilsson, R. Henrik; Tedersoo, Leho
- New Phytologist, Vol. 199, Issue 1
Scraping the bottom of the barrel: are rare high throughput sequences artifacts?
journal, February 2015
- Brown, Shawn P.; Veach, Allison M.; Rigdon-Huss, Anne R.
- Fungal Ecology, Vol. 13
Correction: Exploring Microbial Diversity and Taxonomy Using SSU rRNA Hypervariable Tag Sequencing
journal, December 2008
- Huse, Susan M.; Dethlefsen, Les; Huber, Julie A.
- PLoS Genetics, Vol. 4, Issue 12
Works referencing / citing this record:
Assembly processes of trophic guilds in the root mycobiome of temperate forests
journal, May 2018
- Schröter, Kristina; Wemheuer, Bernd; Pena, Rodica
- Molecular Ecology, Vol. 28, Issue 2
Rhizosphere microbiomes diverge among Populus trichocarpa plant-host genotypes and chemotypes, but it depends on soil origin
journal, May 2019
- Veach, Allison M.; Morris, Reese; Yip, Daniel Z.
- Microbiome, Vol. 7, Issue 1
Assessment of functional and structural changes of soil fungal and oomycete communities in holm oak declined dehesas through metabarcoding analysis
journal, March 2019
- Ruiz Gómez, Francisco J.; Navarro-Cerrillo, Rafael M.; Pérez-de-Luque, Alejandro
- Scientific Reports, Vol. 9, Issue 1
Substrate and spatial variables are major determinants of fungal community in karst caves in Southwest China
journal, May 2019
- Zhang, Zhi‐Feng; Cai, Lei
- Journal of Biogeography
Plant-soil feedback is shut down when nutrients come to town
journal, April 2019
- in ’t Zandt, Dina; van den Brink, Annelien; de Kroon, Hans
- Plant and Soil, Vol. 439, Issue 1-2
Chestnuts bred for blight resistance depart nursery with distinct fungal rhizobiomes
journal, May 2019
- Reazin, Christopher; Baird, Richard; Clark, Stacy
- Mycorrhiza, Vol. 29, Issue 4
Ectomycorrhizal fungi and soil enzymes exhibit contrasting patterns along elevation gradients in southern Patagonia
journal, March 2019
- Truong, Camille; Gabbarini, Luciano A.; Corrales, Adriana
- New Phytologist, Vol. 222, Issue 4
Rhizosphere microbiomes diverge among Populus trichocarpa plant-host genotypes and chemotypes, but it depends on soil origin
journal, May 2019
- Veach, Allison M.; Morris, Reese; Yip, Daniel Z.
- Microbiome, Vol. 7, Issue 1
Substrate and spatial variables are major determinants of fungal community in karst caves in Southwest China
journal, May 2019
- Zhang, Zhi‐Feng; Cai, Lei
- Journal of Biogeography