Plant-Associated Fungi in Semi-arid, Arid, and Cold-Temperate Ecosystems

Plant-associated fungi, such as mycorrhizal and endophytic fungi, played crucial roles in improving plant fitness and productivity, particularly under stressful conditions. In recent decades, there are a large number of studies focusing on root-associated and plant-associated fungi in temperate, subtropic, and tropic ecosystems with good water-energy conditions, under the development of high-throughput sequencing technique, but knowledge on plant-associated fungi, particularly fungal diversity and mechanisms underlying community assembly in semi-arid, arid and cold-temperate are still unclear.

The goal of this Research Topic is to reveal the fungal diversity and community assembly mechanisms of plant-associated fungi in special ecosystems including grassland, desert, and forests in semi-arid, arid, and cold-temperate ecosystems.

This research topic will fill the knowledge gap on fungal diversity and related mechanisms underlying community assembly in special ecosystems with poor hydrothermal conditions.

The scope of the Research Topic includes:

• Fungal diversity
• Fungal phylogeny
• Fungal community assembly
• Fungal specificity
• Fungal interactions