Spruce and beech as local determinants of forest fungal community structure in litter, humus and mineral soil

Beech forests reaches its native distribution limit in SE Norway, but is expected to expand substantially northwards due to climate warming. This may potentially result in a fundamental transformation of contemporary Northern European forests, with tentative effects on the associated belowground fungi. Fungal communities mediate vital ecosystem processes such as ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration in boreal forests. To investigate how soil fungi is affected by the vegetation transition from spruce to beech forest, we sampled litter, humus and mineral soil in a forest landscape dominated by beech, spruce or a mixture of these. The fungal communities in the soil samples were analyzed by DNA metabarcoding of the rDNA ITS2 region. Although soil layers were the most important structuring gradient, we found clear differences in fungal species composition between spruce and beech plots. The differences in fungal community composition were most evident in the litter and least in the mineral soil. Decomposers, most notably Mycena, dominated the litter layer while various mycorrhizal fungi dominated the humus and mineral layers. Some ectomycorrhizal taxa, such as Cenoccocum and Russula, were more abundant in spruce forests. Differences in fungal community composition between forest types can potentially have large impacts on carbon sequestration rates.