Fungal Communities on Standing Litter Are Structured by Moisture Type and Constrain Decomposition in a Hyper-Arid Grassland

16Citations
Citations of this article
20Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

Non-rainfall moisture (fog, dew, and water vapor; NRM) is an important driver of plant litter decomposition in grasslands, where it can contribute significantly to terrestrial carbon cycling. However, we still do not know whether microbial decomposers respond differently to NRM and rain, nor whether this response affects litter decomposition rates. To determine how local moisture regimes influence decomposer communities and their function, we examined fungal communities on standing grass litter at an NRM-dominated site and a rain-dominated site 75 km apart in the hyper-arid Namib Desert using a reciprocal transplant design. Dominant taxa at both sites consisted of both extremophilic and cosmopolitan species. Fungal communities differed between the two moisture regimes with environment having a considerably stronger effect on community composition than did stage of decomposition. Community composition was influenced by the availability of air-derived spores at each site and by specialization of fungi to their home environment; specifically, fungi from the cooler, moister NRM Site performed worse (measured as fungal biomass and litter mass loss) when moved to the warmer, drier rain-dominated site while Rain Site fungi performed equally well in both environments. Our results contribute to growing literature demonstrating that as climate change alters the frequency, magnitude and type of moisture events in arid ecosystems, litter decomposition rates may be altered and constrained by the composition of existing decomposer communities.

References Powered by Scopus

UPARSE: Highly accurate OTU sequences from microbial amplicon reads

13044Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Phyloseq: An R Package for Reproducible Interactive Analysis and Graphics of Microbiome Census Data

12844Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Increasing drought under global warming in observations and models

3681Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

Interactive effects of changes in UV radiation and climate on terrestrial ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, and feedbacks to the climate system

52Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Microbial regulation of feedbacks to ecosystem change

17Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Why Plants Harbor Complex Endophytic Fungal Communities: Insights From Perennial Bunchgrass Stipagrostis sabulicola in the Namib Sand Sea

14Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Logan, J. R., Jacobson, K. M., Jacobson, P. J., & Evans, S. E. (2021). Fungal Communities on Standing Litter Are Structured by Moisture Type and Constrain Decomposition in a Hyper-Arid Grassland. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.596517

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 6

67%

Researcher 2

22%

Lecturer / Post doc 1

11%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Agricultural and Biological Sciences 4

44%

Environmental Science 2

22%

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Bi... 2

22%

Computer Science 1

11%

Article Metrics

Tooltip
Social Media
Shares, Likes & Comments: 73

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free