Effects of shrub encroachment in grasslands on soil fungal communities in Inner Mongolia,China
Shrub encroachment in grasslands is a common phenomenon in arid and semiarid ecosystems worldwide,with significant effects on nutrient cycling and vegetation composition of grassland ecosystems.The fungal community,as a key regulator of soil nutrient enrichment and transformation as well as plant growth and reproduction,is not well understood in terms of how it responds to shrub encroachment.In this study,a typical shrub encroached grassland in Inner Mongolia was selected as the research object,and a matched pure grassland was selected as the control.High-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the effects of shrub encroachment on the structure and function of soil fungal communities.The results showed that all the identified soil fungi belonged to four phyla,encompassing 10 classes,18 orders,28 families,and 29 genera.The Sobs,Shannon,ACE,and Chao1 indices of soil fungi were in the order of shrub-encroached grassland＞pure grassland at soil depths of 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm.We observed marked differences in the composition of the soil fungal communities.For example,in the shrub encroached grassland,an increase was observed in the relative abundance of fungi genera such as Fusarium(+19.51％)and Trechispora(16.20％),whereas the relative abundance of unclassified_p__Ascomycota(-19.30％)and Ceratobasidium(-13.20％)decreased.The difference between the soil fungal communities of the shrub-encroached grassland and pure grassland was significantly greater than the variation observed within their respective communities(P＜0.05).Additionally,we observed changes in soil fungal functions,marked by a discernible increase in saprotrophic and pathotrophs,with the most substantial increase observed in wood saprotrophs.In addition,soil pH,organic carbon,total nitrogen,and total phosphorus were the primary factors affecting soil fungal community structure in grasslands.In conclusion,shrub encroachment significantly affects the structure and function of soil fungal communities in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia.
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