Abstract
Fire is a dominant ecosystem process in many Mediterranean climate type ecosystems, and is predicted to increase in severity and frequency, shifting away from previous regimes in many regions. Responses of flora and fauna to fire are relatively well studied, but less is known about the responses of belowground microbiota. We quantified soil fungal dynamics over the first 12–15 months after fire, focusing on attributes of the fire regime (season, interval, severity). Soil samples were collected from three sites in a threatened woodland ecosystem in southwestern Australia, a Mediterranean-type climate region. Fungal taxa were identified via high throughput sequencing of the ITS subregion and taxonomy assigned using reference databases. Richness, diversity, abundance, community composition, and functional groups were quantified. Over the post-fire sampling period, richness and diversity declined and soil fungal community composition changed significantly throughout the sampling period, with family level taxa and functional groupings experiencing the most change. Through the sampling period, an increase in saprotrophic and endophytic fungi was observed, along with a decrease in all pathogenic fungi. We found that the post-fire fungal community is quite dynamic in the first 12–15 months after fire. We found little effect of fire interval or fire season, though our inference was limited. Our work contributes to putting belowground biota into the same conceptual frameworks as aboveground taxa and serves to inform fire managers in fire-prone Mediterranean climate type regions.
RAS ID
71879
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
12-1-2024
Volume
199
Funding Information
Australian Research Council / Botanical Gardens and Parks Authority / Department of Parks and Wildlife
School
Centre for People, Place and Planet / School of Science
Grant Number
ARC Number : LP160100996
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Publisher
Elsevier
Recommended Citation
Brace, A. J., Ruthrof, K. X., Miller, B. P., Fontaine, J. B., & Hopkins, A. J. (2024). Short-term soil fungal community dynamics following fire in mediterranean climate-type banksia woodlands. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109579
Comments
Brace, A. J., Ruthrof, K. X., Miller, B. P., Fontaine, J. B., & Hopkins, A. J. (2024). Short-term soil fungal community dynamics following fire in mediterranean climate-type banksia woodlands. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109579