Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Symbiotic Interactions
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1441613
This article is part of the Research Topic Plant-Associated Fungi in Semi-arid, Arid, and Cold-Temperate Ecosystems View all 8 articles

Responses of soil fungal community composition and function to wetland degradation in the Songnen Plain, northeastern China

Provisionally accepted
Zhizhi Yan Zhizhi Yan 1Shuhan Yang Shuhan Yang 1Lei Chen Lei Chen 1Yu Zou Yu Zou 2Yupeng Zhao Yupeng Zhao 1Guang Yan Guang Yan 3He Wang He Wang 1*Yining Wu Yining Wu 1,4*
  • 1 Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
  • 2 Qiqihar Medical University, Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, China
  • 3 halahai Provincial Nature Reserve, Qiqihaer, China
  • 4 Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences Institute of Natural Resources and Ecology, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Wetlands are ecosystems that have a significant impact on ecological services and are essential for the environment. With the impacts of rapid population growth, wetland reclamation, urbanization, and land use change, wetlands have undergo severe degradation or loss. However, the response of soil fungal communities to wetland degradation remains unknown. To understand the variety and population of soil fungi in the Songnen Plain wetlands with varying degradation levels, we studied how soil fungi react to wetland degradation and progression. This research utilized highthroughput sequencing technology to analyze the variety and abundance of soil fungi in the undegraded (UD), light degraded (LD), moderate degraded (MD), and severe degraded (SD) conditions in the Halahai Nature Reserve of Songnen Plain. This study also explored how these fungi are related to the soil's physicochemical properties in wetlands at various degradation levels. The findings indicated that Basidiomycota and Ascomycota were the primary phyla in the Songnen Plain, with Ascomycota increasing and Basidiomycota decreasing as wetland degradation progressed. Significant differences were observed in soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and soil total potassium (TK) among the succession degradation stages. With the deterioration of the wetland, there was a pattern of the Shannon and Chao1 indices increasing and then decreasing. Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) analysis indicated that the fungal community structures of UD and LD were quite similar, whereas MD and SD exhibited more distinct differences in their fungal community compositions. Redundancy analysis (RDA) results indicated that Soil Water content (SWC) and total nitrogen (TN) were the primary environmental factors influencing the dominant fungal phylum. According to the FUNGuild prediction, Ectomycorrhizal and plant pathogenis gradually declining with wetland degradation. In general, our findings can offer theoretical support for the preservation and rehabilitation of damaged wetlands.

    Keywords: Wetland degradation, soil fungal community, Composition and function, highthroughput sequencing technology, Songnen plain

    Received: 31 May 2024; Accepted: 19 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yan, Yang, Chen, Zou, Zhao, Yan, Wang and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    He Wang, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
    Yining Wu, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.