The soil fungal ecology of the southern Gobi region of Mongolia has been little studied. We utilized the ITS1 region from soil DNA to study possible influences soil metal concentrations on soil fungal community variation. In the sample network, a distinctive fungal community was closely associated with high zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), and copper (Cu) concentrations. The pattern of occurrence suggests that high metal concentrations are natural and not a product of mining activities. The metal-associated fungal community differs little from the "normal" community in its major OTUs, and in terms of major fungal guilds and taxa, and its distinctiveness depends on a combination of many less common OTUs. The fungal community in the sites with high metal concentrations is no less diverse than that in areas with normal background levels. Overall, these findings raise interesting questions of the evolutionary origin and functional characteristics of this apparently "metal-tolerant" community, and of the associated soil biota in general. It is possible that rehabilitation of metal-contaminated mined soils from spoil heaps could benefit from the incorporation of fungi derived from these areas.

中文翻译：

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在含金属的戈壁沙漠土壤中，高浓度的锌，铅和铜描绘了耐金属的真菌群落。

蒙古南部戈壁地区的土壤真菌生态学研究很少。我们利用土壤DNA中的ITS1区域研究土壤金属浓度对土壤真菌群落变化的可能影响。在样本网络中，一个独特的真菌群落与高浓度的锌（Zn），铅（Pb）和铜（Cu）密切相关。发生的模式表明，高金属浓度是自然的，而不是采矿活动的产物。与金属相关的真菌群落在主要的OTU和主要的真菌协会和分类群方面与“正常”群落几乎没有什么不同，其独特性取决于许多不常见的OTU的组合。金属含量高的地区的真菌群落与正常背景水平的地区的真菌群落一样多。总体，这些发现提出了一个有趣的问题，即这个明显具有“金属耐受性”的群落以及相关的土壤生物群落的进化起源和功能特征。从弃土堆中恢复金属污染的开采土壤可能会受益于这些地区衍生的真菌的掺入。