TY - JOUR T1 - Soil fungal community changes in response to long-term fire cessation and N fertilization in tallgrass prairie JF - Fungal Ecology Y1 - 2019 A1 - Carson, Christine M. A1 - A. Jumpponen A1 - John M. Blair A1 - Lydia H. Zeglin AB -

In grasslands, fire management and fertilization are established drivers of plant community change, but associated soil fungal responses are less well defined. We predicted that soil fungal communities would change seasonally, that decades of fire cessation and nitrogen (N) fertilization would alter fungal distributions, and that plant and fungal community change would be correlated. Surface soils were sampled monthly for 1 y from a 30-y fire by fertilization experiment to evaluate fungal community dynamics and assess correlation with plant community heterogeneity. ITS gene community composition was seasonally stable, excepting increased arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal summer abundance in the burned, fertilized treatment. Long-term treatments affected soil fungal and plant communities, with correlated heterogeneity patterns. Despite woody encroachment in the fire cessation treatment, soil fungal communities did not resemble those of forests. This study provides evidence supporting the strength of feedbacks between fungal and plant community change in response to long-term grassland fire and N management changes.

VL - 41 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1754504818302538?via%3Dihub ER -