Climate change may lead to increased droughts in the future, which in turn may lead to increased periods of stream drying. We conducted an experiment to test the effects of drying on fungal communities and microbial activity on decaying leaves from a stream. Our experimental setup included immersion of maple leaf cores for 2 weeks in a small stream to allow for the colonization of microbes. Leaves were then subjected for 2 weeks to four treatments: one control, where leaves stayed immersed in the stream, and three drying treatments in different settings (field, lab, and oven). Leaves were then returned to sterile water for 2 weeks of recovery. Microbial respiration declined after all drying treatments compared to the control, with the oven‐dried leaves taking the longest time to recover. All drying treatments had similar respiration to each other and the control after 2 weeks of immersion recovery. Fungal communities on the leaves were assessed by polymerase chain reaction amplification of fungal DNA from leaves followed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Most treatments had very similar communities based on phylotypes from DGGE, with little change during drying and recovery compared to immersion controls. However, the oven‐dried leaves had a very different community developing during recovery. There were no differences in diversity or richness of DGGE phylotypes among treatments after recovery. Overall, the fungal communities, in our experiment, appeared resilient to the effects of short‐term drying, with little change to community structure and relatively fast recovery in activity after rewetting.

中文翻译：

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溪流真菌对叶片分解的反应对实验干燥的响应

气候变化可能会导致未来干旱加剧，进而导致溪流干燥期增加。我们进行了一项实验，以测试干燥对真菌群落的影响以及微生物对溪流中腐烂叶片的影响。我们的实验装置包括将枫叶芯在小溪流中浸泡2周，以使微生物得以定殖。然后，将叶片进行2周的4种处理：一种对照，使叶片保持浸没在流中，以及三种在不同设置（田间，实验室和烤箱）下的干燥处理。然后将叶片放回无菌水中恢复2周。与对照相比，所有干燥处理后微生物的呼吸能力均下降，而烘干后的叶子需要最长的恢复时间。浸泡恢复2周后，所有干燥处理的呼吸和对照组的呼吸相似。通过聚合酶链反应扩增叶子上的真菌DNA，然后变性梯度凝胶电泳（DGGE），评估叶子上的真菌群落。大多数处理具有基于DGGE系统型的非常相似的群落，与浸入对照相比在干燥和恢复期间变化很小。但是，烘干后的叶子在恢复过程中发育出非常不同的群落。恢复后各处理之间DGGE系统型的多样性或丰富度没有差异。总体而言，在我们的实验中，真菌群落对短期干燥的影响似乎具有弹性，群落结构几乎没有变化，并且重新润湿后活性相对较快恢复。