Explaining the large-scale diversity of soil organisms that drive biogeochemical processes—and their responses to environmental change—is critical. However, identifying consistent drivers of belowground diversity and abundance for some soil organisms at large spatial scales remains problematic. Here we investigate a major guild, the ectomycorrhizal fungi, across European forests at a spatial scale and resolution that is—to our knowledge—unprecedented, to explore key biotic and abiotic predictors of ectomycorrhizal diversity and to identify dominant responses and thresholds for change across complex environmental gradients. We show the effect of 38 host, environment, climate and geographical variables on ectomycorrhizal diversity, and define thresholds of community change for key variables. We quantify host specificity and reveal plasticity in functional traits involved in soil foraging across gradients. We conclude that environmental and host factors explain most of the variation in ectomycorrhizal diversity, that the environmental thresholds used as major ecosystem assessment tools need adjustment and that the importance of belowground specificity and plasticity has previously been underappreciated.Analyses of data from 137 forest plots across 20 European countries show that ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity is strongly influenced by environmental and host species factors and provide thresholds to inform ecosystem assessment tools

中文翻译：

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环境和宿主作为外生菌根真菌的大规模控制

解释驱动生物地球化学过程的土壤生物的大规模多样性及其对环境变化的反应至关重要。然而，在大空间尺度上确定某些土壤生物的地下多样性和丰度的一致驱动因素仍然存在问题。在这里，我们以前所未有的空间尺度和分辨率调查了欧洲森林中的一个主要公会外生菌根真菌，以探索外生菌根多样性的关键生物和非生物预测因子，并确定显性反应和跨复杂变化的阈值。环境梯度。我们展示了 38 个宿主、环境、气候和地理变量对外生菌根多样性的影响，并定义了关键变量的群落变化阈值。我们量化了宿主特异性，并揭示了跨梯度土壤觅食所涉及的功能性状的可塑性。我们得出结论，环境和寄主因素解释了外生菌根多样性的大部分变化，用作主要生态系统评估工具的环境阈值需要调整，地下特异性和可塑性的重要性以前没有得到充分重视。 来自 137 个森林地块的数据分析20 个欧洲国家表明外生菌根真菌多样性受到环境和宿主物种因素的强烈影响，并为生态系统评估工具提供了阈值