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Fine‐scale diversity and distribution of ectomycorrhizal fungal mycelium in a S cots pine forest
Author(s) -
Anderson Ian C.,
Genney David R.,
Alexander Ian J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.12637
Subject(s) - mycelium , ectomycorrhiza , biology , botany , hypha , mycology , mycorrhiza , symbiosis , bacteria , genetics
Summary Ectomycorrhizal ( ECM ) mycelium is a key component of the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, yet we know little regarding the fine‐scale diversity and distribution of mycelium in ECM fungal communities. We collected four 20 × 20 × 2‐cm 3 (800‐cm 3 ) slices of S cots pine ( P inus sylvestris ) forest soil and divided each into 100 2 × 2 × 2‐cm 3 (8‐cm 3 ) cubes. The presence of mycelium of ECM fungi was determined using an internal transcribed spacer ( ITS ) database terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism ( T ‐ RFLP ) approach. As expected, many more ECM fungi were detected as mycelium than as ectomycorrhizas in a cube or slice. More surprisingly, up to one‐quarter of the 43 species previously detected as ectomycorrhizas over an area of 400 m 2 could be detected in a single 8‐cm 3 cube, and up to three‐quarters in a single 800‐cm 3 slice. ECM mycelium frequency decreased markedly with depth and there were distinct ‘hotspots’ of mycelium in the moss/ F 1 layer. Our data demonstrate a high diversity of ECM mycelium in a small (8‐cm 3 ) volume of substrate, and indicate that the spatial scale at which ECM species are distributed as mycelium may be very different from the spatial scale at which they are distributed as tips.