• Dispersal is a key process driving local‐scale community assembly and global‐scale biogeography of plant symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities. A trait‐based approach could improve predictions regarding how AM fungal aerial dispersal varies by species.
• We conducted month‐long collections of aerial AM fungi for 12 consecutive months in an urban mesic environment at heights of 20 m. We measured morphological functional traits of collected spores and assessed aerial AM fungal community structure both morphologically and with high‐throughput sequencing.
• Large numbers of AM fungal spores were present in the air over the course of 1 yr, and these spores exhibited traits that facilitate aerial dispersal. Measured aerial spores were smaller than average for Glomeromycotinan fungi. Trait‐based predictions indicate that nearly one third of described species from diverse genera demonstrate the potential for aerial dispersal. Diversity of aerial AM fungi was relatively high (20 spore species and 17 virtual taxa), and both spore abundance and community structure shifted temporally.
• The prevalence of aerial dispersal in AM fungi is perhaps greater than previously indicated, and a hypothesized model of AM fungal aerial dispersal mechanisms is presented. Anthropogenic soil impacts may liberate AM fungal propagules initiating the dispersal of ruderal species.

中文翻译：

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基于性状的丛枝菌根真菌的空中传播。

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  扩散是驱动植物共生丛枝菌根（AM）真菌群落局部规模群落组装和全球规模生物地理学的关键过程。基于性状的方法可以改进对 AM 真菌空中传播如何因物种而异的预测。
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  我们在城市生态环境中、海拔 20 m 的环境中连续 12 个月进行了为期一个月的空中 AM 真菌采集。我们测量了收集的孢子的形态功能特征，并通过形态学和高通量测序评估了空中 AM 真菌群落结构。
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  在一年的时间里，空气中存在大量 AM 真菌孢子，这些孢子表现出有利于空中传播的特征。测量的气生孢子小于球囊菌亚门真菌的平均孢子。基于性状的预测表明，来自不同属的近三分之一的描述物种表现出空中传播的潜力。气生AM真菌的多样性相对较高（20个孢子种和17个虚拟类群），并且孢子丰度和群落结构都随时间发生变化。
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  AM 真菌空中传播的普遍性可能比之前指出的要大，并且提出了 AM 真菌空中传播机制的假设模型。人为土壤影响可能会释放 AM 真菌繁殖体，从而引发野生物种的扩散。