Song Wenchen
Key Laboratory of Ecology and Environment in Minority Areas (Minzu University of China), National Ethnic Affairs Commission, Beijing, China.
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China.
Microbiol Spectr. 2023 Feb 22;11(2):e0251522. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.02515-22.
To identify the reasons for the inconsistency in patterns of latitudinal gradients of forest soil fungal biodiversity in China, a reanalysis of data was performed. Causes are linked to the different environments of continents and islands and the inconsistency between different classification standards. The following three suggestions are made for future studies: sites on the mainland and islands should be distinguished in these types of studies, the Shannon index should be used to represent fungal diversity instead of operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness, and using the diversity of higher taxa (such as family level) instead of OTU level represents a potential proxy for species-level diversity. Latitudinal gradients of forest soil fungal biodiversity in China have been previously investigated; however, the results of these studies were inconsistent. In the present study, I reanalyzed the data from these studies on all forest types in China and showed that the differences in forest soil fungal latitudinal diversity were caused by the different environments of continents and islands, as well as by the inconsistency between different classification standards. Accordingly, three suggestions were outlined for future studies on this and similar topics. This study makes a significant contribution to the literature because these findings can be used to improve our understanding of the forest soil fungal latitudinal diversity and as a basis for future studies.
为了找出中国森林土壤真菌生物多样性纬度梯度模式不一致的原因，我们进行了数据重新分析。原因与大陆和岛屿的不同环境以及不同分类标准之间的不一致有关。针对未来研究提出以下三点建议：在这类研究中应区分大陆和岛屿上的研究地点，应使用香农指数而非操作分类单元（OTU）丰富度来表示真菌多样性，并且使用较高分类单元（如科级）的多样性而非OTU水平来代表物种水平多样性的潜在替代指标。此前已对中国森林土壤真菌生物多样性的纬度梯度进行过调查；然而，这些研究的结果并不一致。在本研究中，我重新分析了这些关于中国所有森林类型的研究数据，并表明森林土壤真菌纬度多样性的差异是由大陆和岛屿的不同环境以及不同分类标准之间的不一致造成的。因此，针对这一及类似主题的未来研究概述了三点建议。本研究对文献做出了重大贡献，因为这些发现可用于增进我们对森林土壤真菌纬度多样性的理解，并作为未来研究的基础。
