Nitrogen-fixing trees in mixed forest systems regulate the ecology of fungal community and phosphorus cycling

Author(s)

Pereira, Arthur Prudencio de A. ^[1] ; Santana, Maiele C. ^[2] ; Zagatto, Mauricio R. G. ^[2] ; Brandani, Carolina B. ^[3] ; Wang, Jun-Tao ^{[4, 5]} ; Verma, Jay P. ^[6] ; Singh, Brajesh K. ^{[4, 7]} ; Cardoso, Elke J. B. N. ^[2]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Fed Ceara, Soil Sci Dept, Fortaleza, Ceara - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Piracicaba - Brazil

^[3] New Mexico State Univ, Coll Agr Consumer & Environm Sci, Clayton Livestock Res Ctr, Las Cruces, NM 88003 - USA

^[4] Western Sydney Univ, Hawkesbury Inst Environm, Sydney, NSW - Australia

^[5] Chinese Acad Sci, Res Ctr Ecoenvironm Sci, Beijing - Peoples R China

^[6] Banaras Hindu Univ, Inst Environm & Sustainable Dev, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh - India

^[7] Western Sydney Univ, Global Ctr Land Based Innovat, Sydney, NSW - Australia

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Science of The Total Environment; v. 758, MAR 1 2021.
• Web of Science Citations: 1

Abstract

The fungal community plays an important role in forest ecosystems via the provision of resources to plant nutrition and productivity. However, the ecology of the fungal network and its relationship with phosphorus (P) dynamics remain poorly understood in mixed forest plantations. Here, we analyzed the fungal community using the amplicon sequencing in plantations of pure Eucalyptus grandis, with (E + N) and without N fertilization (E), besides pure Acacia mangium (A), and in a consortium of E. grandis and A. mangium (E + A), at 27 and 39 months after planting. We analyzed chemical, physical and biochemical soil and litter attributes related to P cycling, and the fungal community structure to find out if mixed plantations can increase fungal connections and to identify their role in the P dynamics in the soil-litter system. Soil organic fraction (OF), phosphorus in OF, total-P and acid phosphatase activity were significantly higher in E + A and A treatments regardless of the sampling period. Total N and P, richness, and Shannon diversity of the fungi in the litter was significantly higher in the treatments E + A and A. The fungal community structure in litter differed between treatments and sampling periods, and E + A showed an intermediate structure between the two pure treatments (E) and (A). E + A correlated highly with P dynamics when evaluated by both Pearson and redundancy analyses, particularly in the litter layer. Co-occurrence networks of fungal taxa became simpler in pure E. grandis plantations, where as mixed system (E + A) showed a more connected and complex network. Our findings provide novel evidence that mixed forest plantations promote positive responses in the fungal community connections, which are closely related to P availability in the system, prominently in the litter layer. This indicates that the litter layer represents a specific niche to improve nutrient cycling by fungi in mixed forest ecosystems. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/16623-9 - Ecological intensification of eucalyptus plantations by association of nitrogen fixing leguminous tree species
• Grantee: José Leonardo de Moraes Gonçalves
• Support type: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 16/01636-4 - The metagenome of mixed forests of Eucalyptus urograndis: taxonomic and functional diversity of soil microbiome associated with nitrogen cycling
• Grantee: Arthur Prudêncio de Araujo Pereira
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 16/18944-3 - Climatic changes and energetic efficiency in agriculture: focusing on hydric stress, organic management and soil biology
• Grantee: Elke Jurandy Bran Nogueira Cardoso
• Support type: Research Program on Global Climate Change - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 17/16610-3 - Intercropped plantations of Eucalyptus grandis and Acacia mangium: nitrogen cycle microbiome in the soil and litter interface
• Grantee: Arthur Prudêncio de Araujo Pereira
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate