Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play a significant role in the establishment and resilience of vegetation in harsh environments, such as volcanic slopes, in which soil is frequently disturbed by ash falling and erosion. We characterized AM fungal communities associated with a pioneer grass in a volcanic slope based on the disturbance tolerance of the fungi, addressing the hypothesis that soil disturbance is a major ecological filter for AM fungi in volcanic ecosystems and, thus, fungi that are more tolerant to soil disturbance are selected at higher elevations (i.e. nearer to the crater). Paired soil-core samples were collected from the rhizosphere of Miscanthus sinensis between the vegetation limit and forest limit on a volcanic slope and used in a trap culture with M. sinensis seedlings, in which one of the paired samples was sieved to destroy hyphal networks (disturbance treatment), while the other was not (intact treatment). Seedlings were grown in a greenhouse for two months, and the roots were subjected to molecular analysis of fungal communities. AM fungal diversity decreased with increasing elevations, in which nested structure was observed. Community dissimilarity between the disturbed and intact communities decreased with increasing elevations, suggesting that communities at higher elevations were more robust against soil disturbance. These results suggest that AM fungi that are more tolerant to soil disturbance are more widely distributed across the ecosystem, that is, they are generalists. The wide distribution of disturbance-tolerant fungi may have significant implications for the rapid resilience of vegetation after disturbance in the ecosystem.

中文翻译：

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火山生态系统中丛枝菌根真菌群落的嵌套性：沿海拔梯度选择耐干扰真菌

丛枝菌根 (AM) 真菌在恶劣环境（例如火山斜坡）中，土壤经常受到灰烬掉落和侵蚀的干扰，在植被的建立和恢复方面发挥着重要作用。我们根据真菌的干扰耐受性描述了与火山斜坡中的先锋草相关的 AM 真菌群落，解决了土壤干扰是火山生态系统中 AM 真菌的主要生态过滤器的假设，因此，真菌更耐受土壤扰动被选择在更高的海拔（即更靠近火山口）。从火山坡上植被界限和森林界限之间的芒草根际采集成对的土壤-核心样品，用于芒草幼苗的诱捕培养，其中一个配对样本被筛分以破坏菌丝网络（干扰处理），而另一个则没有（完整处理）。幼苗在温室中生长两个月，对根部进行真菌群落的分子分析。AM 真菌多样性随着海拔的增加而降低，其中观察到嵌套结构。受干扰群落和完整群落之间的群落差异随着海拔的升高而减小，表明海拔较高的群落对土壤干扰的抵抗力更强。这些结果表明，对土壤干扰更耐受的 AM 真菌在整个生态系统中分布更广，也就是说，它们是多面手。