Fungi are key mediators of ecosystem processes in temperate forests. Hence, understanding of fungal community development is central to better understand the mechanisms driving shifts in ecosystem processes during forest succession. We studied fungal communities in soil, rhizosphere and roots in a Central European forest chronosequence (1–137 years) dominated by Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies. We assessed whether and how fungal community composition and productivity change along the forest age gradient. Stand age did not have any significant effect on fungal ergosterol content but community composition shifted with the stand age. In particular, the composition of the community of root-associated ectomycorrhizal fungi responded to stand age. Relative abundances of different fungal ecological guilds did not change with forest age and ectomycorrhizal exploratory types were not good predictors of community dynamics. Our results suggest that the stand age effect on community composition may be driven by changes in nutrient supply provided by plant hosts to root-associated fungi.

真菌是温带森林生态系统过程的关键媒介。因此，了解真菌群落的发展对于更好地了解森林演替过程中驱动生态系统过程转变的机制至关重要。我们研究了中欧森林（Fagus sylvatica）和云杉（Picea abies）主导的中欧森林时间序列（1–137年）中土壤，根际和根部的真菌群落。。我们评估了真菌群落组成和生产力是否以及如何随森林年龄梯度变化。林分年龄对真菌麦角固醇含量没有任何显着影响，但群落组成随林分年龄而变化。特别是，根相关的外生菌根真菌的群落组成对林分年龄有反应。不同的真菌生态协会的相对丰度没有随森林年龄而变化，并且外生菌根探索类型不是群落动态的良好预测因子。我们的结果表明，林分龄对群落组成的影响可能是由植物宿主对根系相关真菌的营养供应变化所驱动。