English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Tropical montane cloud forests contain a large abundance and diversity of canopy epiphytes, which depend on canopy soil to retain water and nutrients. We lack an in depth understanding of how these soils contribute to ecosystem processes and soil diversity and how sensitive they may be to projected climate change. We compared canopy and ground soils in Monteverde, Costa Rica, to determine how these two soil types differ in their extracellular enzyme activity (EEA) and fungal communities. Samples were also collected along two elevation gradients to reveal if canopy soils differed in how EEA and fungal communities responded to elevation compared to ground soils. We found that canopy soils had higher EEA than ground soils. Fungal communities were less diverse and differed significantly between the two soil types. These differences were associated with higher relative abundances of yeasts and endophytes in canopy soils. The relative abundances of free-living filamentous fungi and yeasts shifted more dramatically with elevation in canopy soils compared to ground soils. Our study suggests that canopy soils may be a reservoir for endophytes. Epiphytes may invest in symbionts that promote stress tolerance over mycorrhizal fungi whose high resource demands are costly and less beneficial. Overall, soils harbor distinct fungal communities that may be altered under projected climate change.

Fungi in the Canopy: How Soil Fungi and Extracellular Enzymes Differ Between Canopy and Ground Soils