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Soil fungal community composition differs significantly among the Antarctic, Arctic, and Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

Fungi are widely distributed in all terrestrial ecosystems, and they are essential to the recycling of nutrients in all terrestrial habitats on earth. We wanted to determine the relationship between soil fungal communities and geochemical factors (geographical location and soil physicochemical properties) in three widely separated geographical regions (the Antarctic, Arctic, and Tibet Plateau). Using high-throughput Illumina amplicon sequencing, we characterized the fungal communities in 53 soil samples collected from the three regions. The fungal richness and diversity indices were not significantly different among the three regions. However, fungal community composition and many fungal taxa (Thelebolales, Verrucariales, Sordariales, Chaetothyriales, Hypocreales, Pleosporales, Capnodiales, and Dothideales) significantly differed among three regions. Furthermore, geographical location (latitude and altitude) and six soil physicochemical properties (SiO42−-Si, pH, NO3−-N, organic nitrogen, NO2−-N, and organic carbon) were significant geochemical factors those were correlated with the soil fungal community composition. These results suggest that many geochemical factors influence the distribution of the fungal species within the Antarctic, Arctic, and Tibet Plateau.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant nos. 31670025 and 81621064); National Science and Technology Project of China (Nos. 2017ZX09301072 and 2018ZX09711001-007-001); Projects of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, State Oceanic Administration; National Infrastructure of Microbial Resources (Grant No. NIMR-2020-3); CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (Grant No. 2016-I2M-2-002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Pharmaceutical Culture Collection, Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Zhang & Liyan Yu

  2. Key Lab of Marine Bioactive Substances, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, People’s Republic of China

    Nengfei Wang

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  1. Tao Zhang
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  2. Nengfei Wang
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  3. Liyan Yu
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Correspondence to Tao Zhang or Liyan Yu.

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Communicated by A. Oren.

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Zhang, T., Wang, N. & Yu, L. Soil fungal community composition differs significantly among the Antarctic, Arctic, and Tibetan Plateau. Extremophiles 24, 821–829 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-020-01197-7

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