Biodiversity Seminar: Prevalence of Drought, Soil Conditions and Host Age in Structuring Fungal Communities of Healthy and Decaying Juvenile Beech Trees in Forests

In forest ecosystems, trees interact with a broad range of soil microorganisms. These microbial communities contribute to the extended phenotype of their host partners by improving nutrition uptake (e.g. water, nitrogen, phosphorus) and increasing tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. Thus, in the context of extreme climate events, it is critical to characterise how trees and their associated fungal partners respond to water deficit. Here, we investigated the impact of soil water availability in Switzerland on the fungal communities associated with the root systems of decaying and healthy beech trees in natural beech forests. Water stress had a greater effect on the structuring of fungal communities than other soil parameters (e.g. C/N ratio, pH, mineral content). We identified a core group of fungi that remained unaffected by water availability among all sampled sites (e.g. Cenococcum, Tomentella and Mortierella). In contrast, some fungal species such as Oidiodendron chlamydosporicum and Lactarius blennius were more abundant in sampling sites more prone to water deficit. Finally, we showed that the abundance of ectomycorrhizal fungi was significantly associated with healthy beech root systems, while the relative abundance of saprotrophic fungi increased in the roots of trees exhibiting severe decay.

Our public seminars are hybrid, with the option to attend in-person or online.

Zoom webinar: link (ID: 650 3334 2319, Password: 348826)

The Biodiversity Seminar Series are organized by the WSL Biodiversity Center. Every two weeks, we aim to host a seminar speaker who presents research or outreach on topics relevant to the biodiversity community at WSL. The seminars are public and are usually broadcast online.

To find out more about the WSL Biodiversity Center and a complete list of events, please visit our website. 

Please send an email to events-biodiversity(at)wsl.ch if you would like to be updated on the activities of the WSL Biodiversity Center.