Ecological Drivers of Microbiome Assembly in a Panamanian Rainforest
Loading...
Date
2022
Authors
Malamud, Nathan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Fungal pathogens in soil have been hypothesized to drive the maintenance of plant communities through population density-dependent feedbacks. For this to be the case, however, different species of fungi must show patterns of favoring certain tree host species. In this study, I analyzed metagenomic sequencing data to determine whether fungi formed distinct communities across 11 tree species. Soil and leaf litter samples were obtained from Gigante, a peninsula of Barro Colorado National Monument, Panama. I used FUNGuild, an online taxonomic database, to classify amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) into three ecological guilds: mutualists, pathogens, and decomposers. Using a pairwise PERMANOVA test, I found pathogenic fungi (in soil) and decomposer fungi (in soil and in litter) to show the strongest patterns of community divergence (for most tree species, p < 0.05), and mutualistic fungi had the weakest (for most tree species, p > 0.10). Findings were limited by a high percentage of unidentified taxa (60% – 63% unclassified ASVs for all tree species). Together, these results suggest that fungal pathogens and decomposers show strong patterns of community divergence across tree species, thereby potentially validating their roles in shaping aboveground plant community structure.
Description
Keywords
microbiology, ecology, rainforests, fungi, botany