Soil Fungal Communities’ Characteristics of the Lamiophlomis rotata Root-Zone to Altitude and Their Relationship with Environmental Factors

This study aimed to investigate differences and patterns in fungal communities within the root-zone soil of Lamiophlomis rotata across varying altitudes. Specifically, it analyzed the characteristics of soil fungal communities at altitudes of 3600, 3800, 4000, and 4200 m and examined their relationships with key bioactive medicinal constituents and soil nutrients. The results indicated that Ascomycota, Mortierellomycota, and Basidiomycota were the dominant fungal phyla in the L. rotata root-zone soil, with Pseudosperma and Clavaria as the predominant genera. The Shannon and Chao1 diversity indices of soil fungi initially decreased and subsequently increased with increasing altitude. At the same altitude, these indices were higher in the root-zone soil than in the non-root-zone soil. Redundancy analysis revealed that available phosphorus was the primary factor influencing fungal communities in the non-root-zone soil. In conclusion, altitude significantly affected the characteristics of fungal communities in root-zone soil, which differed significantly from those in the non-root-zone soils. These findings provide valuable data to support the conservation of L. rotata resources on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau.